Reserved Parking Marine Reserves and Small-Scale Fishing Communities: a Collection of Articles from SAMUDRA Report

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SAMUDRA Dossier

Reserved Parking Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities: A collection of articles from SAMUDRA Report

International Collective in Support of Fishworkers www.icsf.net

SAMUDRA Dossier

Reserved Parking Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities: A collection of articles from SAMUDRA Report

International Collective in Support of Fishworkers www.icsf.net Reserved Parking Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities: A collection of articles from SAMUDRA Report

SAMUDRA Dossier

Published by International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) 27 College Road, Chennai 600 006, India Tel: +91 44 2827 5303 Fax: +91 44 2825 4457 Email: [email protected] www.icsf.net

March 2008

Edited by KG Kumar

Cover Illustration by Sandesh ([email protected])

Printed at Nagaraj and Company Pvt Ltd, Chennai 600 096, India

ISBN 978 81 904590 8 2

While ICSF reserves all rights for this publication, any portion of it may be freely copied and distributed, provided appropriate credit is given. Any commercial use of this material is prohibited without prior permission. ICSF would appreciate receiving a copy of any publication that uses this publication as a source.

The opinions and positions expressed in this publication are those of the authors concerned and do not necessarily represent the ofﬁ cial views of ICSF. Contents

Preface ...... v 1. The difﬁ cult road to Rio...... 1 2. The view from the other side ...... 4 3. The future reserved? ...... 11 4. Jammed in Jambudwip ...... 15 5. Parking in the right place ...... 19 6. Deal with hunger and poverty ﬁ rst ...... 21 7. Recognize rights ...... 23 8. Filleting Nemo ...... 26 9. The power of co-management ...... 30 10. Dreams vs painful realities ...... 32 11. Making local communities visible ...... 37 12. An uncommon tragedy ...... 41 13. Only four years left to 2010! ...... 43 14. Life studies ...... 46 15. An integrated approach ...... 53 16. Reserving a role for communities ...... 57 17. Towards a new commons ...... 59 18. Reversing from a dead end...... 64

iii

Preface

As international concern grows about the rapid rate at which the earth’s biodiversity is being lost, marine protected areas (MPAs) are being widely propagated as one of the most effective tools available for the conservation of coastal and marine resources. Since most MPAs are located in coastal and marine areas of great biodiversity, their development has direct relevance and concern to the livelihoods, culture and survival of small-scale and traditional ﬁ shing and coastal communities.

The articles and other documents in this dossier, drawn chronologically from the pages of SAMUDRA Report, the triannual publication of ICSF, touch upon the gamut of issues currently being discussed about the link between ﬁ sheries- based livelihoods and biodiversity, community participation in the MPA process, the perceived costs and beneﬁ ts of MPAs for communities, and the most appropriate way forward for livelihood-sensitive conservation.

Several articles in this collection highlight the fact that conservation and community livelihoods are closely intertwined, and that much before issues of conservation became part of the international agenda, it was coastal ﬁ shing communities who were drawing attention to, among other things, the negative impacts of pollution, uncontrolled expansion of destructive industrial ﬁ sheries and aquaculture, and technologies such as bottom trawling for shrimp, both on coastal biodiversity and on their livelihoods.

Fishing-community organizations and their supporters who participated in the 1991 Rio Conference–the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)–that led to the adoption of Agenda 21, advocated for protecting both the coastal and marine environment, and small-scale ﬁ sheries- based livelihoods, drawing on traditional ecological knowledge systems and principles of sustainable use. Many of their proposals were incorporated into the text of the Rio Declaration agreed on by States.

The UNCED process and the Rio Declaration highlighted the need for sustainable development–socially responsible economic development that protects the resource base and the environment for the beneﬁ t of future generations. It put human beings at the centre of concerns for sustainable development, and emphasized the importance of eradicating poverty as an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. At the Rio Conference, States, as evidence of their commitment to sustainable development, signed the legally binding Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Yet, as some articles in this dossier reveal, the conservation approaches being adopted in different parts of the world are not always consistent with agreed principles. The costs of conservation, frequently linked to the setting up and expansion of MPAs, are, in many cases, being borne by fi shing communities, particularly by the poorest among them, whose harvesting practices often have minimal impact on the resources base. Refl ected in the articles are stories of exclusion from fi shing grounds and decision-making processes, and accounts of poverty and human-rights violations, associated with top-down, non-

v participatory models of conservation. There is clearly something fundamentally wrong with conservation approaches that take on the poor and the powerless— potential allies in conservation, given their dependence on, and knowledge of, natural resources–while ignoring the environmental destruction being wreaked by the economically and socially powerful.

At the same time, on a more positive note, this dossier also contains articles that show how fi shing communities have led conservation initiatives in which, for instance, they have actively sought to be part of MPA decision-making processes, using them as instruments against expansion of polluting industries, shrimp culture, sport fi shing, tourism, burgeoning maritime traffi c, and oil pollution.

Fishing communities around the world have consistently made the case that it is possible to protect and conserve the environment while continuing with sustainable ﬁ shing operations. They have strongly advocated for an integrated approach to ﬁ sheries management and conservation of coastal and marine resources, arguing that establishing a reserve without simultaneously applying a management plan in the adjoining areas, will produce only limited results.

We hope this collection of articles will be useful for policymakers, NGOs and others working on issues of coastal and marine conservation, and that it leads to a greater appreciation of ﬁ shing-community concerns and perspectives, as well as of their socioeconomic reality, culture and knowledge systems. Only then can conservation become equitable, effective and sustainable in the long term, compatible with the principles of sustainable development. There is no other way to go.

Chandrika Sharma Executive Secretary, ICSF

vi SAMUDRA Dossier The difﬁ cult road to Rio

Héctor Luis Morales

Prior to the Earth Summit, ﬁ shermen and their organizations have demonstrated a role in defending the environment and their rights as professionals

he Rio de Janeiro United Nations Therefore, responsibility for paying the (UN) conference has awakened environmental debt should be shared and Tgreat hope throughout the world. be proportional for those who pollute more Its results could also lead to great frustration than others, in order to seek solutions that if government representatives fail to reach are more harmonious for peoples as well as a practical agreement to solve the serious for their relation to their environment, from environmental problems facing our planet. a perspective of long-term sustainability. This is diffi cult in practice, due to the high The preparatory meetings of the United cost involved and resistance to the changes Nations and the seminars, conferences that must take place in current production and publications by governments, research and consumption patterns. Responsibility centres, civil organizations and social for these changes should also be shared by movements have shown that the road to Rio the governments and civil society of the is diffi cult, owing to the quantity and gravity less developed countries. A tremendous of the political, environmental and economic contradiction has been revealed in the problems that have been detected. preparatory meetings for the Earth Summit, as this UN conference has come Even though environmental problems and to be called. Humanity is fully aware of the their solutions can be detected and quantifi ed, risky situation which threatens to collapse it is diffi cult to understand the rigidity of the its environment, yet it is prevented from governments of rich countries in blocking moving radically to solve the problem overall solutions proposed in international because of a lack of decision on the part fora. Negotiations in those meetings do not of the industrialized countries unwilling to follow the recommendations of scientists pay the bill for the damage they caused. nor the agreements of the social groups affected. Instead, they satisfy the short-term Fishermen live from the resources of economic interests of the rich countries. the sea and different bodies of water. Coastal and marine areas are known to Who will pay the debt for the environment? be vitally important, both economically Who has caused the damage? The answers and ecologically, for a large part of the heard in meeting rooms and hallways hide population of the planet. These areas are the truth: the modern industrial development subject to overexploitation and competition, style, invented in the countries of the North due to short-term demands, especially from and extended to the South, has polluted our the rich regions, such as Europe, Japan and planet and led to weather changes, the hole the United States, who normally do not This article, by in the ozone layer, exhaustion of natural produce enough fi shery products and are Hector Luis Morales, resources, impoverishment of millions of willing to pay high prices in Third World Associate Member, people and a political and social situation countries to obtain them. ICSF, appeared in marked by wars between different countries SAMUDRA Report Nos. and abhorrent social and economic The oceans and continental waters are 5 & 6, June 1992 inequalities. being polluted from land-based sources

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 1 SAMUDRA Dossier

such as urban, chemical, agricultural, provide a basis for what ICSF has called the pesticide and mining effl uents, seriously Charter of the Basic Rights of the Artisanal endangering the survival of human beings Fishermen and Fishworkers of the World: and the species of those waters, and mainly • The state of the marine environment their diversity. Certain ecosystems are in is generally recognized, especially danger of being destroyed, which would with reference to the handling of mean the disappearance of species whose living resources through uncontrolled nutritional value and potential for medicine fi shing, overcapitalization, oversized and industry are still unknown. Weather fl eets, the use of insuffi ciently selective changes brought on by the emission of fi shing methods; and also the use of gases like methane, carbon dioxide or the sea as a dumping ground for all chlorofl uorocarbons (CFCs) can raise the kinds of land-based urban, industrial, level of the sea and provoke enormous agricultural and mining pollution. catastrophes by fl ooding and the destruction • It is imperative that States commit of aquacultural areas, plankton and marine themselves to conserve and use living productivity. resources in a sustainable manner, in These facts are known and have been order to meet the nutritional needs of human beings, maintain and restore suffi ciently pronounced by scientists, populations of species, promote the ecological associations and international creation and use of selective fi shing agencies that deal with these issues. What methods, conserve endangered we want to show in this article is the role species and habitats, and promote that fi shermen and their organizations scientifi c research on these resources. have played in defending the environment and their rights as professionals, by making • States should also take into account, their concerns known to governments, and in their production and managerial opening up roads to request respect for systems, the traditional knowledge and their concerns and satisfaction for their interests of local communities, small- demands. scale fi shermen and autochthonous populations. They should also develop During the meetings of the preparatory the potential of living marine resources committee of the conference, ICSF by preparing inventories for their presented different viewpoints that conservation and sustainable use. were accepted and incorporated in draft Special emphasis is placed on having documents, eventually becoming a proposal coastal States support the sustainability of that summarized these demands and that, small-scale artisanal fi shing. To do so, they if adopted, will serve as a platform for should: the struggles of national and regional organizations. • integrate the development of small- scale artisanal fi shing into planning for marine and coastal areas, The proposed Plan of Action, called taking into account the interests of Agenda 21, contains a special chapter on fi shermen, workers in small-scale the protection of the oceans and types processing operations, women, of seas, including closed and semi-closed local communities and indigenous seas, coastal areas, and the protection and populations, by encouraging rational use and development of their representation of these groups, living resources. Points C and D of that where possible, even ensuring that in chapter present a series of statements that negotiations and the implementation

2 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier

of international agreements, the interests of local communities and indigenous populations are taken into account, especially their right to subsistence; • recognize the rights of those involved in small-scale fi shing, and the special situation of indigenous populations and local communities, including their rights to use and protect their habitat on a sustainable basis; and • establish systems to acquire and record traditional knowledge about living resources and the marine environment, and promote the States should also incorporation of that knowledge into take into account, in management systems. their production and With regard to aquaculture, it is managerial systems, recommended that the possibilities offered the traditional by marine and coastal areas under national knowledge and jurisdiction be analyzed; that adequate interests of local safeguards be applied in order to introduce communities, small- new species, and that educational, fi nancial scale fi shermen and technical co-operation be developed to increase this activity together with small- and autochthonous scale fi shing. populations.

A special recommendation is made about the need to recognize and protect marine ecosystems with high levels of biodiversity and productivity, especially coral reefs, estuaries, temperate and tropical wetlands, including mangroves, oyster and algae beds and other areas of reproduction and growth. A request is made to establish limits and deﬁ ne protected areas.

The Charter summarizes the proposals Also online at: of Agenda 21 in an easily understood fashion. Our hope is that they gradually http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/5-6/art01.pdf become the ideas that inspire the struggles of organizations to recover their dignity and achieve the recognition that is due to ﬁ shworkers for their contribution to the survival of families and the environment in which we live.

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 3 SAMUDRA Dossier The view from the other side

Antonio Carlos Diegues

As examples from Brazil show, environmental impact assessments often ignore the views of artisanal ﬁ shing communities

n Brazil, the Amazonian region the most important socioeconomic represents the last frontier for coastal process. Industrial pollution, particularly Iand inland fi sheries. Fish represents the dumping of sugar cane waste from the most important source of protein alcohol production, was responsible for the and income for the riverine population biological impoverishment of estuaries and in the region. Brazil has the highest per coastal lagoons. capita fi sh consumption, equivalent to the consumption in Japan. During this period, artisanal fi sheries were responsible for more than half of the fi sh Traditional fi shermen, however, are today caught, but the so-called ‘modernization confronted with problems created by of fi sheries’, based on industrial fi shing the construction of large dams, water and promoted by the Food and Agriculture pollution by the mercury used in gold Organisation of the United Nations mining, the invasion of lakes and rivers by (FAO), largely disregarded the essential commercial or industrial fi shing boats from contribution of artisanal fi sheries for food urban fi shing harbours, limits to access to production and employment in coastal resources through the establishment of villages and towns. Many social confl icts large farms along biologically rich lakes and occurred between artisanal and industrial lagoons and, fi nally, by the establishment of fi sheries, as large shrimp fi shing destroyed national parks in those very areas in which the nets of small-scale fi shermen. they used to live. As a result, fi sh resources were largely All these factors are creating serious confl icts depleted by profi t-eager industrial fi shing among local fi shermen, big landowners, companies. The marginalization of small- commercial/industrial fi shing units and State scale fi shermen became more serious when agencies responsible for dam construction many beaches came to be privatized for This article, by and environmental protection. the exclusive use of tourist cottages and Antonio Carlos condominiums. Diegues, Scientific Since the 1960s, the entire coastal region of In the 1980s, to manage the use of the Director of Brazil has been suffering from an intensive coastal area, the federal government NUPAUB: Research and destructive occupation of its ecosystems, Centre for Wetlands particularly the estuaries, lagoons, coral reefs started a Coastal Management Programme, Conservation, and mangroves, where most of the artisanal institutionalized in 1988 through a law. University of São fi shermen live and work. From the start, however, the whole exercise Paulo, Brazil and became extremely bureaucratized, as coastal a Member of ICSF, This rapid occupation of the coastline management was restricted to creating appeared in became more intensive during the ‘Brazilian different maps on the land’s potentials and SAMUDRA Report Economic Miracle’, during the military constraints, based on sophisticated remote No. 16, November regime of the 1970s, when industrialization sensing and geographic information system 1996 and urbanization along the coast became (GIS) techniques.

4 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier

Wasted years with the government and the World Bank, Consulting fi rms, interested only in selling local associations are preparing themselves emerging technologies of remote sensing for the impact of the expansion of tourism. techniques, were the bases for the initial They thus hope to take advantage of the exercises. Over a dozen years were spent in eventual benefi ts, and restrict the negative producing overlays and maps of different impacts. coastal States, but until now, not a single The second activity of the Forum comprises coastal management plan has been actually negotiations on managing the very lucrative implemented. lobster fi shery, which employs around As a result, ecologically and socially, the 12,000 fi shermen in Ceará State. Fishermen situation in the coastal ecosystems became are worried about the rapid decline of the critical. A new development is taking place lobster catch in the last few years. in the northeastern State of Ceará, known After long negotiations between local for its beautiful beaches, growing tourism fi shermen’s organizations, NGOs, and lobster fi shing (by both artisanal universities, the fi shing industry and and industrial fi shermen). An innovative and grass-roots experiment in coastal IBAMA–the Federal Environmental management has been undertaken by Agency–plan for the management of local associations of fi shermen, assisted lobster fi shery was established in 1995. by a small non-governmental organization The plan put severe restrictions on the fi shing of lobster juveniles by artisanal and (NGO) and a local university. industrial fi shermen and a complete ban on Instead of wasting too much time in diving for lobster. The artisanal fi shermen’s searching for information and maps, they associations bought a boat to be used for have established a Coastal Forum (Forum do the enforcement of fi shing regulations. Litoral) in which negotiations occur among different groups on the use of coastal land Good results and marine resources. This grass-roots coastal management scheme, based on extensive negotiations The Forum’s activities lie in two areas. The fi rst with all users, is producing positive results, is a critical evaluation of a large government in contrast to the government’s coastal project called Prodetur, fi nanced by the World management plan, which is based on long Bank. The government’s preliminary project years of producing maps and ineffective proposal does not take into consideration the top-down approaches. importance of the coastal fi shing communities or the impact on these human cultures of the Also revealing is the impact on small-scale extensive tourist development projects along fi shing communities of a large irrigation the coast. scheme on the fl oodplain of the São Francisco River, in Marituba, a ‘varzea’ If these local communities are not ready for (a fl oodplain near the mouth of the river), an increase in tourism-related activities, the in the coastal plain of Alagoas-Sergipe, in whole traditional production system based the northeast of Brazil. It covers about 200 on small-scale fi sheries, agriculture and sq km of marshes, resulting from periodic handicraft will be severely damaged. Some fl ooding of the river. communities are organizing their own co- operatives to provide tourism services, The swamp is crossed by the Barreiras while controlling the sale of their beach Channel (about 20 km long) that connects property to tourists. Through negotiations the São Francisco River to Marituba River

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 5 SAMUDRA Dossier

and Lago do Peixe. This natural channel construction of two large hydroelectric plays an important role, as many species of dams (Paulo Afonso and Sobradinho), fi sh migrate through it to reach the lakes hundreds of km upriver. The dams have inside the marsh. The most important regulated the fl ow of the river, and now lake is Lago dos Peixes, known for its fewer fi sh enter the varzeas than during the abundant fi sh resources. The area is mainly previous fl ooding period. marshy and contains several species of palm trees used by the local population for The second set of changes has been caused building thatched roof houses, for making by the expansion of sugar cane plantations traditional medicines and producing food. during the 1970s, as part of the government The Varzea da Marituba also contains programme for the production of alcohol important habitats for several species of to be used as automobile fuel. A local fi sh, birds and small wild animals. sugar cane distillery bought up almost all the available land, and the sugar plantation In the fl oodplain are two villages–Marituba now surrounds the lakes in the varzea. de Cima and Marituba do Peixe–containing Intensive use of fertilizers and herbicides around 270 hamlets and 1,200 inhabitants has a negative impact on the fi sh stocks. who live mainly on small-scale fi shing or agriculture, and handicraft. Fish and other The last remaining areas of forest were cut products are sold in the nearby city of for expanding sugar cane plantations. As Penedo. The territory of the villages is a result, many important habitats of game now surrounded by sugar cane plantations birds were lost, depriving peasants and belonging to a nearby distillery. fi shermen of important sources of protein. Also, many fruit and palm trees, from which Fieldwork undertaken by the Federal fi bre was extracted for handicraft, have been University of Alagoas has discovered that lost. It is now diffi cult to fi nd a tree suitable over 48 different species (including surubim, for making the traditional fi shing canoe. piau, cara and several species of shrimp) have been identifi ed, and consumed and New transformation sold by the fi shermen. The local fi shermen The third and most important threat to the have extensive and precise knowledge of varzea is from CODEVASF, a government the different habitats of the fl oodplain. agricultural development agency which Over 40 different habitats are known by plans to transform the entire varzea into the varzeiros (inhabitants of the varzea) and irrigated rice fi elds. This State company has these are exploited for fi shing, depending already converted several larger swamps of on the season and fi sh-eating habits. About the São Francisco River into rice-growing 18 different fi shing and fi sh management projects. In the already established projects, techniques are used by local fi shermen, there has been a complete transformation including a period of rest, when no fi shing of the swamps and the entire hydrological is carried out in the lakes, and the use of regime has changed. ‘brush parks’–bundles of branches placed on the bottom of the lagoon to attract fi sh, In the project called Betume (involving similar to the West African akaja. 10,000 ha), CODEVASF has blocked the waterways to the lagoons and stopped Two decades ago, the fl oodplain and their fi sh migration. As a result, fi sh stocks inhabitants started to undergo important diminished and local fi shermen have found changes. The fi rst great set of impacts their livelihoods affected. Apart from occurred in the 1960s, when important these serious environmental impacts, local changes took place in the hydrological populations have also suffered from the regime of the fl oodplain due to the conversion of wetlands.

6 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier

Having lost their land, they have been would not receive plots in the modem forced to live on the outskirts of the project rice project. These were given to farmers area. They were temporarily employed in outside the area, as had already occurred the construction of the irrigated fi elds, but in the other irrigated schemes of the seldom received a plot in the project area. company. Very often, the choice of farmers Rice plots with irrigation infrastructure for the project is made on a political basis, were given to the better-off farmers, who with preference given to those nominated were usually outsiders. by local or regional politicians. Another conclusion of the research is that the whole In 1985, CODEVASF decided to start a hydrological system of the varzea would be new project in the Marituba swamp that damaged, and traditional fi shing would would lead to a complete transformation disappear, along with important endangered of the last existing varzea of São Francisco species. River, with the disruption of the fi sheries and the hydrological regime. The peasants/ As result of the research, at the public The project has fi shermen would be resettled elsewhere. hearing to evaluate the EIA for the project, in February 1991 in the State capital of shown that the The environmental impact assessment Maceio, an alliance of environmental conservation of (EIA), funded by CODEVASF, argues that NGOs, scientists and Marituba residents this last remaining yields from irrigated rice plots would be was set up. During the public hearing itself, fl oodplain and higher than from the traditional planting the varzeiros made clear their disapproval its value for the methods of the villagers. Also, the scheme of the project, but the political forces in livelihood of the would create a large number of jobs. The support of the project were very strong. inhabitants were EIA claims that there are no endangered Thus the EIA was not rejected by the State species in the area and that the income authorities. However, new complementary higher than the people would get from irrigated rice studies were requested. benefi ts that might planting will be higher than from fi shing be generated by the and handicraft. Overall, claims the EIA, the From that experience, it was clear that the transformation of the project has a positive regional impact. criteria for costs and benefi ts were different fl oodplain. for the different social groups involved. In 1988, the University of São Paulo, in Since non-governmental funds and co-operation with the Federal University research expertise were made available, the of Alagoas, started a participatory and point of view of the villagers, supported interdisciplinary research project involving by ethnoscientifi c knowledge, was made ecologists, biologists, anthropologists, clear at the public hearing. EIAs, funded by historians and agronomists, and based on those who are responsible for the project, the ethnoscientifi c approach. are usually biased against the interests of the local populations whose livelihoods will The project has shown that the conservation be affected. Local populations and their of this last remaining fl oodplain and its organizations should receive specifi c public value for the livelihoods of the inhabitants funds to implement their own EIAs. were higher than the benefi ts that might be generated by the transformation of the Protected areas fl oodplain. It became also clear that the State The establishment of protected areas in company only considered as ‘productive coastal regions affects small-scale fi shing jobs’ those generated by the irrigated rice communities. Brazil has around four per projects and not the jobs already existing cent of its territory within different types through traditional activities. The varzeiros of protected areas, mainly national parks, would lose their sources of income and ecological stations and national forests.

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 7 SAMUDRA Dossier

These correspond to around 380,000 sq In coastal areas, where the pressure km, an area larger than many European on ecosystems by land developers and countries. speculators is high, leading also to the expropriation of the beaches of fi shermen, Most of the environmentally protected the establishment of protected areas areas are located in Amazonia, covering may actually hinder this process and, in around 13 per cent of the total Amazonian the beginning, may benefi t traditional region. In addition, there are some protected fi shermen. However, the park marine and coastal areas along the coast administration soon starts prohibiting of the Atlantic and Amazonian forests, most of the traditional activities of the covering adjacent coastal area ecosystems inhabitants. Their situation then becomes such as mangroves, estuaries and coral unbearable, ultimately leading the reefs, used by artisanal fi shermen. communities to abandon the land of their ancestors. According to the Brazilian legislation on protected areas, which follows the model Social revolt of the Yellowstone National Park in the United States, people living inside have to be The establishment of strict environmental resettled elsewhere. This imported model has protection units in large coastal areas have had a catastrophic impact on the livelihoods led local communities to a situation of of thousands of small-scale fi shermen and social revolt, as the conditions for their other small producers who have lived in the subsistence are abruptly suppressed. As area for many generations and who, due a consequence, the dwellers consider the to their mode of production, were able to newly established areas as nobody’s land, protect the forests and adjacent seas. and start to overuse natural resources and to fi sh illegally, practices that they had These traditional communities, often living refrained from earlier. in isolated areas, depend almost exclusively on the use of natural resources. They have In addition, when these traditional a complex relationship with the natural communities move outside the park area, environment, which is not just of an other users, such as tourists, poachers, economic nature. mining and sawmill operators, may act more freely, leading to the degradation of Values, traditions and cultural perceptions the coastal area. Some conservationists may built over centuries, play an essential role argue that, without uninhabited protected in defi ning their relationship with the areas, biodiversity may disappear. However, environment and natural resources. These in tropical countries, it is becoming clear traditional peoples have a deep knowledge that biodiversity is also protected–and even of the environment where they live and of enhanced–by traditional practices. the natural resources, and have developed, in coastal areas, knowledge-intensive It is becoming increasingly clear that this management schemes. imported national park model, bereft of traditional dwellers, is becoming a failure, Very often, when the government and is not achieving an adequate level of establishes a protected area, not only are conservation. A new model of conservation the interests of local populations ignored, has to be devised and implemented, making but the traditional territory of the people the traditional knowledge and management is also taken away, to be transformed into schemes of local communities the protected areas. cornerstone of an effective conservation that also benefi ts traditional people.

8 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier

In this sense, a new model of protected the assistance of local organizations and areas may lead not only to effective NGOs, including the World Wide Fund conservation but to an amelioration of the for Nature, a conservation project was living standard of thousands of small-scale established in co-operation with the fi shing fi shermen and producers. A new form of communities. The communities themselves management, negotiated with the local organized management institutions that dwellers, inside and outside the protected regulate fi shing, particularly during the dry area, could be the basis of actions to season when several lakes are formed. protect simultaneously the ecosystems and the diversity of cultures of coastal dwellers The management plan delineates six in tropical countries. In the last few years, different types of lakes, some of them being however, local fi shermen in Brazil are considered as exclusive conservation areas, getting organized with the assistance of the some left for subsistence fi shing and others Catholic Church (Pastoral of Fishermen) reserved for commercial fi shing, also for upcountry commercial boats, provided that and the recently established MONAPE– rules (particularly those banning the use of A new model of National Movement of Fishermen. some predatory nets) are respected. conservation has In the beginning, local fi shing communities to be devised and Overall, however, it is clear that not only started closing the entrance of the most implemented, making important lakes to the commercial/industrial ill-devised development projects but also ill-conceived protected areas may lead the traditional fi shing boats. These actions led to violent to the degradation of ecosystems and their knowledge and confl icts. They attracted the attention of natural resources, as well as to the increasing management schemes socio-environmental organizations, which impoverishment of local populations then started fi sheries management schemes of local communities who should actually be benefi ting from involving all the actors, particularly local the cornerstone of an these activities. It is also clear that local fi shing communities (as in Lago Grande de effective conservation populations, particularly the traditional Monte Alegre in the middle Amazon). dwellers, should be involved, from the that also benefi ts traditional people. The basic idea was to create areas where outset, in the planning of these projects, access to resources is restricted to local including the establishment of protected fi shermen, while retaining other areas for areas.This might appear contradictory, commercial/industrial fi sheries. In these as national parks are supposed to protect restricted areas, local fi shermen agreed biodiversity. In many cases, however, coastal protected areas, based on the imported to regulate their fi shing activities so as to model of the Yellowstone National Park, achieve a socially and ecologically optimal may lead to opposite results. These efforts sustainable yield, applying the same lack the people’s support, particularly of principles that orient the extractive rubber those directly affected by the resettlement tapping industry. measures or by the prohibition of traditional activities. Ecological station One example of these efforts is the From these examples, it appears that establishment of the Mamiraua Ecological protected areas should be established only Station in a wetland area covering one after an EIA is made, taking as a priority million hectares along the Japura and the interests, knowledge and traditional Solimoes River, where 4,500 people live management schemes of local dwellers. by fi shing and harvesting forest products. In any model, these should be actively According to existing legislation, all the incorporated in the management plans. The 50 small communities should be resettled State should give the material and technical outside this protected area. However, with means to local communities to undertake

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 9 SAMUDRA Dossier

their own environmental and social impact analyses.

Clearly, these examples reveal that costs and benefi ts of large projects, as stated in offi cial environmental impact reports, very often do not take into account the views and interests of local fi shermen. Presenting their own conclusions during public hearings will enable local communities to negotiate with the State and other social actors to arrive at a better solution to their problems.

Also online at:

http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/16/art02.pdf

10 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier The future reserved?

Leith Duncan

The experience of New Zealand seems to suggest marine reserves as a proactive solution to the crisis in the world’s oceans

arine reserves are probably numbers of adults drowning in the nets of the most proactive means of the squid fi shery could lead to extinction, Mcountering the present crisis led to the Ministry of Fisheries setting a in the world’s oceans. In that part of the quota on the number that could be killed globe where the hemisphere is centred on before the fi shery was closed. This quota, New Zealand, 90 per cent is ocean and like a stock assessment, is an estimate of the marine ecosystems there are isolated the sustainable mortality derived from the from humans. They should, therefore, be biological parameters, and the numbers less affected by exploitation and pollution killed on vessels, that the Ministry of than those of most other countries. New Fisheries observers extrapolated over the Zealand should thus be the ideal test case whole fl eet. Last year, the fi gure was more for marine reserves. than 100 females, already much greater than the agreed quota before intensive lobbying Under New Zealand’s Marine Reserves Act, led to the Minister closing the fi shery. Yet, such reserves are set aside primarily for even before this year’s fi shing season had scientifi c purposes. The need for increased begun properly, it was estimated that more scientifi c understanding is very clear, as than this number of breeding adults had threats to the ocean from both natural and already died at sea from this mysterious human sources are blatantly obvious. illness. The consequences of further human impact could be serious. As the worst El Niño since 1983 reverses the normal climatic patterns in the South On the mainland, following numerous Pacifi c, dramatic die-offs of marine complaints of human acute respiratory mammals, penguin, fi sh and seabird irritation, there have been offi cial warnings kills, toxic algal blooms and red tides to keep people off two popular beaches. In are hitting New Zealand waters with another outbreak in Wellington, a university unexpected severity. Such impacts threaten marine scientist found that all marine life fi sheries, economics and equanimity. They in the harbour had been killed and that the demonstrate just how little of the complex city could only wait for a change of weather dynamics of marine ecosystems and their to disperse the toxin involved. living species is known. Around the coast, there have been numerous This article, In the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands, more closures of beaches, marine farms or by Leith Duncan, than 1300 pups of the endangered Hooker’s specifi ed lengths of coastline for shellfi sh an environmental sea lions have died for reasons scientists harvesting as a result of monitoring toxic fisheries consultant have as yet been unable to determine. With blooms. In the north, there have even been based in a population of under 15,000, Hookers are dramatic red tides off local beaches. This is New Zealand, the rarest and most isolated of sea lions the fi rst time since the unprecedented crisis appeared in in the world. Campaigning in recent years in 1992-93 that there have been reports of SAMUDRA Report by conservationists, concerned that the such widespread and intensive impacts. If No. 20, May 1998

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 11 SAMUDRA Dossier

nothing else, it raises questions about how signs of reverting to this state. With much we know about the dynamics of the ‘spillover’ and increased larval export from marine ecosystems. expanding species populations, practical benefi ts also fl ow beyond the designated Unusual events areas to the environment and those Although so many unusual events have who depend on it. Many species and the occurred this summer, the fact that they products of spawning do not recognize have occurred in many different bodies gazetted boundaries but rather, as the pots of water separated by features such as the of lobster fi shermen surrounding some Southern Convergence means that the reserves testify, become distributed widely search for causal factors must be sought in and contribute economically to these and features that encompass the wider area. other stakeholders.

Generally, threats from pollution and There are now 14 such reserves sprinkled overexploitation of the world’s oceans around New Zealand: Cape Rodney- are increasing. If these major impacts Okakari Point (the Leigh Marine Reserve can be removed from specifi c special and and the fi rst established), the Kermadec representative ecosystems, allowing them Islands (the largest marine reserve in the to regenerate to their previous, natural state, world), Poor Knight Islands, Whanganui A and providing them as control groups, it Hei, Tuhua (Mayor Island), Kapiti Island, could lead to better knowledge. Long Island, Kokomahua, Tunga Island, Piopiotahi (Milfurd Sound), Te Awaatu Such areas of marine reserve are a small Channel (The Gut)-these latter two are but vital contribution to the protection of both in Fiord land, following application the seas. Marine ecosystems are complex made by the Federation of Commercial and diverse and, with the diffi culties of Fishermen-Westhaven (Te Tai Tapu) and, monitoring within a fl uid medium, we more recently, Pollen Island and Long Bay, know comparatively less about them than established under the Marine Reserves Act. about terrestrial systems. Scientists typically In addition, but under different legislation, use control groups in order to remove the there are two marine parks, Tawharanui effects of as many variables as possible, and Mimiwhatangata, and the Sugar Loaf and marine reserves are seen as appropriate Islands Marine Protected Area. Applicants for this purpose. have included university marine scientists, Maori groups, community groups, the By preventing the removal of fi sh, seaweeds, Federation of Commercial Fishermen, shellfi sh and other living organisms, it is the Department of Conservation, and believed they may revert to a more natural conservation groups. state and, therefore, allow for both better understanding and the regeneration of fi sh These are generally no-take areas for populations. Marine reserves are of value scientifi c purposes under the Marine not only for scientists but have social values Reserves Act, but their establishment was and benefi ts for education, recreation, often motivated by a desire to conserve management baselines, conservation and as representative areas of the sea, its habitats a source of pleasure for nature enthusiasts. and species–places where people can visit Indeed, in those reserves established long and see fi sh and marine life as they used ago, the spectacular volume and diversity to be. Overseas, it is recognized that “New of fi sh that so excited the early European Zealand’s marine reserves provide an explorers to New Zealand can again be international model for the protection of seen, while newer destinations are showing critical marine reserves around the globe,”

12 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier as Groundswell reported in a newsletter on implementation, to defi ne a network. marine reserves. Scientists have used both physical and biological criteria to defi ne principles, so In reality, as yet, only a tiny four per cent of that selected areas would include both the territorial sea (out to 12 nautical miles) representative and unique marine ecology. is protected and, without the Kermadec To explain the principles, Professor Bill Reserve, there would be less than one per Ballantine, a marine scientist and leading cent in marine reserves. The immediate proponent, uses the analogy of a trawl net. target is an area of 10 per cent. On land, the Just as the meshes are largest at the mouth need for conservation is well recognized, and reduce in size at the cod end, where and almost a third of New Zealand is the quantity of fi sh will be the densest, protected in national parks and reserves. marine reserves offshore need to be greater Even this does not seem to be enough to but further apart and, inshore, where preserve the uniqueness of New Zealand’s habitats and species are both denser and landscape. Marine ecosystems are even more diverse, the reserves should reduce to Marine ecosystems more complex and so the issue is more smaller size but increase in number. urgent. are complex and More signifi cantly, for specifi c stakeholders, diverse and, with New Zealanders like to fi sh and gather Ballantine has shown that if one area the diffi culties of food from the sea both commercially and has a higher priority for one group, then, monitoring within privately, so virtually the entire coastline is, provided a neighbouring area also meeting a fl uid medium, we or has, until very recently, been exploited, the principles is available, it will serve the know comparatively and so setting up reserves is controversial. purposes of a network just as well. Yet divers have testifi ed to the sometimes less about them than spectacular recovery of marine life within In the Hauraki Gulf, there are now around about terrestrial the reserves. Some, like Leigh just north of eight marine reserves or special ecological systems. Auckland, have become major attractions, areas gazetted, with a further eight in a fairly where people can see dramatic schools of advanced stage of the application process. fi sh by just paddling into the water. As yet, in only two widely separated pairs are the reserves close enough for natural Such benefi ts are becoming widely biological linkages to occur obviously. recognized and scientifi c research has Nevertheless, it would need only another endorsed them by showing an unexpectedly eight reserves before the anticipated large increase in fi sh–there are now 20 synergistic interactions between them times more rock lobster, and 12 times more could reasonably be expected to provide an snapper in the reserves than outside. If effective network. marine reserves can contribute positively toward regenerating local areas, then, in Deepwater resources order to be effective nationally, a network Not all ecological or biogeographical types, of biogeographically and ecologically however, are represented, particularly in representative reserves is required. This offshore areas. Despite knowledge of New should include all types, from those on Zealand’s deepwater fi shery resources, exposed, hard coasts to the soft estuarine efforts to set aside examples of the habitats mudfl ats, mangroves and wetlands. and ecology that support them have yet to advance beyond the planning stage. In the Hauraki Gulf, just outside Auckland and adjacent to the region of greatest In Australia, however, scientists, and others population in New Zealand, efforts are working on orange roughy, through their under way, in terms of both theory and research, management and conservation

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 13 SAMUDRA Dossier

organizations, have ensured that at least a their unexploited state and as the newer few of the known deep-water sea mounts reserves begin the process of forming and their diverse benthic (bottom-dwelling) a network, our understanding of their communities remain unfi shed in an interim species, dynamics and inter-relationships reserve. increases in detail. We begin to accumulate the knowledge and skills necessary to While conservationists see reserves as a counter the many and diverse threats to the proactive means of countering the present ocean. crisis in the global fi sheries, the issue is more controversial for other stakeholders. Complex fi sheries The sub-Antarctic, where pleas have been Whether the same reasoning and processes made for a 100-km exclusion zone around that auger well for New Zealand can be the Auckland Islands to protect the foraging applied to the even more biologically grounds of the endangered Hooker’s sea and socially complex fi sheries in the lions, is one example. tropical developing world is an issue for investigation by those who use them Species ignored in one culture may be highly or know them best. As just a tentative prized in another and thus offer lucrative suggestion, perhaps communities could markets. In the past, New Zealanders had set aside spawning and nursery areas as a no commercial interest in squid, but that is tithe–certainly an immediate sacrifi ce, but by no means the case now as industry has one offering potential benefi t in the longer expanded to meet those demands or even term over a much wider area. create others. Despite management efforts,  some stocks are reducing and effort is shifting to other species. As the companies fi shing on the apparently dwindling stocks of orange roughy are increasingly marketing the once-despised oreo dories, so many of the same companies working the deep-water squid fi shery are askance at any suggestion of exclusion from the now lucrative squid fi shery. Even the offshore areas seem to be fully exploited. In most coastal waters, not only is it more necessary to set aside marine reserves but it is also more diffi cult without encroaching on jobs and livelihoods. The fi shing industry has supported marine reserves in theory, and even applied successfully for a couple, but, in practice, it has opposed Also online at: most applications. Nevertheless, through http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/20/art04.pdf consultation and negotiation, there is hope that suffi cient reserves will be designated and that fi shermen who will be hardest hit in the short run will be the recipients of the greater benefi ts from more prolifi c stocks in the longer term. As the older reserves regenerate closer to

14 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier Jammed in Jambudwip

Sebastian Mathew

The traditional stake-net ﬁ shers of the ecologically sensitive Jambudwip island in West Bengal, India, face a likely ban of their seasonal ﬁ sheries

n the South 24-Parganas District of the the central government. (The CEC was State of West Bengal in India is the constituted by the Supreme Court of I20-sq km island of Jambudwip. Located India by a Notifi cation on 20 June 2002 about 10 km offshore in the southwest to provide relief against any action taken corner of the Sundarbans at the mouth of by the Central/State Governments or river Hooghly in the Bay of Bengal, the any other authority regarding, inter alia, island can be reached in 45 minutes from deforestation and encroachments, and the the Frasergunj fi shing harbour by bhut bhuti, implementation of legal instruments for a small powered country craft. forest conservation.) It has directed the West Bengal government to remove all Jambudwip has been used as a site for traces of encroachment on Jambudwip fi sheries camps at least since 1955, according island by 31 March 2003. to Bikash Raychoudhury’s Moon and Net (published by the Anthropological Survey While the Fisheries Department of West of India in 1980). Behundi jal or stake-net Bengal, under Minister Kiranmoy Nanda, fi shery is a traditional activity in different strongly defends the fi shermen’s claim to parts of the Sundarbans delta, on both the the seasonal use of the island, the Forest Indian and Bangladesh sides. Department is bitterly opposed. The fi shermen are now living in the shadow of The largest stake-net fi shing operation in uncertainty. Will their two-generations old the Sundarbans is based in Jambudwip. fi shery be treated as an activity eligible for It is the Jalia Kaibartha community from regularization or will they be summarily the Chittagong hills that mainly practises evicted? behundi jal fi shery in the marine waters of the Sundarbans. After India attained It was on 29 May 1943 that, under a independence in 1947, the members of Notifi cation of the Government of West this highly enterprising fi shing community Bengal, Jambudwip became reserved forest settled down in places like Kakdwip, as part of the protected forests in the Namkhana, Sagar and Pathar Pratima in Namkhana Division. As a result, no activity West Bengal, and Champaran in Bihar. was allowed on the island, except those permitted by the Forest Department. From However, this traditional source of at least 1968 onwards, fi shermen have been livelihood and sustenance is now under issued permits to use the island to collect serious threat. The Central Empowered fi rewood and to launch boats into the main Committee (CEC) has said that the seasonal creek. This article, “occupation” of the Jambudwip island by Sebastian Mathew, by fi shermen, and the fi sh-drying activity Since 1989, Jambudwip has been part of the Programme Adviser was a non-forest activity that cannot be buffer zone of the Sundarbans Biosphere of ICSF, appeared in permitted under the Forest (Conservation) Reserve, where ecologically sound practices, SAMUDRA Report Act, 1980, without prior approval of including fi sheries, are permitted (unlike the No. 34, March 2003

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 15 SAMUDRA Dossier

core area of a biosphere reserve, which is a Ministerial meeting held between the securely protected for conserving biological Fisheries and the Forest Departments on diversity). Jambudwip is, however, located 9 August 2002. At this meeting, a decision outside the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve. was made, as reported in the press, to regularize the seasonal use of a demarcated Mangroves destroyed area of Jambudwip for fi sh drying by The CEC visited Jambudwip on 3 December fi shermen holding identity cards issued by 2002, in response to an application from the Fisheries Department. the Executive Director, Wildlife Protection Society of India, seeking suitable relief A subsequent letter, dated 30 October against alleged encroachment and 2002, from the MoEF even made provision destruction of mangroves by fi shermen. for setting up district-level committees or commissions to settle disputed claims The CEC’s report of 24 December 2002 of eligible encroachments. But no such directed the West Bengal government to initiative was taken in the case of Jambudwip. remove all traces of encroachment on The letter also revealed a softening of the Jambudwip by 31 March 2003. However, MoEF’s position; the earlier rigid stand on the CEC observed that the proposal “summary eviction” by 30 September gave for fi sh drying on the island could still way to “showing progress on the eviction be considered, but only after obtaining of ineligible encroachments”. clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of External Affairs Entry blocked for the fi shermen involved, since some The West Bengal forest authorities, however, Bangladeshis were alleged to be involved hardened their stand on Jambudwip. They illegally in the island’s fi sheries. erected concrete pillars at the mouth of the creek–the lifeblood of the fi shermen The CEC denouncement followed a series and their fi sheries– allegedly to block the of events consequent to the Supreme entry of fi shing vessels into the creek. On Court order of 12 December 1996 on the 12 November 2002, for the fi rst time in issue of forest encroachment. Further to the history of Jambudwip, ten fi shermen its Order of 23 November 2001 restraining drowned at sea during a cyclone, as they the Central Government from regularizing were unable to seek shelter in the creek. all encroachments, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) wrote Soon after the drowning incident, the to all States and Union Territories on National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF), India, 3 May 2002 to regularize only eligible launched an agitation on 18 November encroachments before 1980 and to evict 2002 against preventing seasonal fi sheries all other encroachments by 30 September camps and blocking entry of fi shing vessels 2002. The Forest Department, soon into the creek in Jambudwip. Subsequently, after receiving this letter from the MoEF, the Principal Secretary of Fisheries, West ordered the Jambudwip fi shermen not to Bengal, informed the CEC that the West use the island and to remove their fi shing Bengal State Government had decided to implements from their makeshift sheds. permit fi shing activity in Jambudwip, on the ground that it has been continuing for Subsequently, the Department set fi re to almost 50 years. the sheds and fi shing implements in July- August 2002. The torching of bamboo- The fi shermen resumed fi shing but they and-reed sheds and fi shing implements were still prevented from landing their is particularly intriguing since there was catch in Jambudwip. On 25 November

16 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier

2002, after removing a few of the concrete since the fi shermen who fi sh do not return pillars erected by the West Bengal Forest to the island until the end of the season, Department, the fi shermen entered the unless there is a cyclone or some accident. creek and sat in their fi shing vessels in The fi shing ground is connected to the peaceful protest against being denied access fi sh-drying yards by fi sh transport vessels to the island. that operate daily, sometimes twice a day.

On 26 November 2002, the Chief Secretary The island–especially the creek during high of West Bengal wrote to the CEC requesting tide–is not only useful for unloading fi sh and it to agree to the State Government proposal loading victuals for the fi shermen staying to allow the fi shermen to resume fi sh-drying on the fi shing ground, it is also benefi cial as activities up to February 2003 as an interim a refuge from cyclones. Drinking water and measure and to await a formal proposal on fi rewood are also available on the island. the issue from the State Government. The Easy access to suffi cient quantities of letter also contained viable proposals for fi rewood was a long-term requirement not long-term solutions to the vexing issue, such only for cooking, but, more importantly, for A subsequent as allowing the seasonal fi shery in a fenced boiling hemp fi shing nets in natural dyes letter, dated 30 area along the seaboard of Jambudwip, to make them invisible to fi sh in the thick October 2002, with full protection to mangroves beyond mud of khari. These days though, fi rewood from the MoEF even the fenced area. is used only for cooking since everyone made provision for Although it indirectly makes provisions has switched to nylon nets, which do not setting up district- for resuming fi sh-drying activities for require any dyeing. level committees the 2002-03 season, the report of the In the behundi jal fi shery, a series of or commissions CEC hangs like a Damocles sword on the bagnets are fi xed in the black, sticky mud to settle disputed future of the Jambudwip fi shery. As we in the seabed undulations called khari at a claims of eligible go to press, there is still uncertainty if the distance of about 25 nautical miles from fi shermen could resume their fi shery from encroachments. But Jambudwip. The khari has a combination the year 2003-04. About 3,000 fi shworkers no such initiative was of disintegrated mangrove wood and mud, live on the island during the season, staying taken in the case of and is an important source of food for in makeshift sheds of bamboo and reed, Jambudwip. bottom-feeder fi sh. Aggregation of benthic repairing fi shing nets, sorting, drying and fi sh attracts other fi sh that predate on them. storing fi sh, while about 3,500 fi shermen engage in behundi jal fi shing in the adjacent Both prey and predator fi sh become quarry sea. What makes behundi jal fi sheries to the fi shermen. possible is the unique delta ecosystem and Bagnet design the community’s indepth understanding of the inter-relationships between the lunar Each fi shing unit has about 20 bagnets. The cycle, oceanic currents and the migratory bagnet has an average length of 75 ft and behaviour of fi sh, in conjunction with the has a 60-ft mouth. Ropes, corresponding dynamics of the bottom topography of the to the water column depth, bind the wings sea, including the pattern of sedimentation of the bagnet on either side of its mouth and soil quality. The fi shery is marked to metal stakes driven into the mud. The by simultaneous capture, transport and knots are ingeniously tied so that the mouth processing activities, with different sets of of the net always faces the water current, in people involved round-the-clock as one both high and low tide. unit under one bahardar, or fl eet operator. The net is designed in such a manner that a In actual practice, it is like setting up two strong current would take it to the bottom camps: one on land and the other at sea, of the channel, while a weaker current

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 17 SAMUDRA Dossier

would keep it at the midwater level. In the Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), furnished absence of a current, the net would fl oat to the CEC by the Forest Department on the surface. Two hardy bamboo poles as “irrefutable proof ” of mangrove are tied vertically to the mouth of the net, destruction, show dense mangrove 20 ft apart, to keep it open. The nets are vegetation coverage, except in areas that fi xed at depths of 12 to 15 fathoms. The are allegedly cleared by the fi shermen. high opening of the bagnet, in synchrony Moreover, since higher-resolution satellite with the currents, allows both demersal and images clearly showing deforestation to the midwater species to be caught. detail that the NRSA images are claiming to portray have been produced in India only In each of the khari, fi ve nets are fi xed in from 1998, the authenticity of the images a row, as a cluster. Often, different khari as irrefutable proof for the period prior to are chosen to deploy the nets. Unlike the 1998 needs to be independently verifi ed trawl net, which furrows the seabed, the scientifi cally. stationary bagnets do not cause any damage to the seabed. The fi sh are emptied every Even if there is felling of mangroves on six hours, at the time of the equilibrium the Jambudwip island for fi rewood by between the high and low tides, when there the fi shworkers, it is not an impossible are no currents, and when the mouth of situation to salvage since the Avicennia the net fl oats on the surface of the sea. species of mangroves found on the island Fish are emptied from the cod-end of the can be successfully regenerated. There are net; doa, the Bengali word for emptying the several examples from India as well as other cod end, can be translated as “milking” the parts of the world of such regeneration. net. Each unit catches about 400 tonnes Moreover, the fi shworkers are ready to of fi sh in a single season. Two-thirds of move from fi rewood to liquefi ed petroleum the catch comprise species like Bombay gas for cooking purposes. duck, ribbonfi sh, anchovies, silver belly There are about 10,000 people dependent and wolf herring, which are dried for on the stake-net fi shery today, as against a human consumption and poultry feed. The couple of hundreds 35 years ago. Instead of remainder one-third comprises high-value extinguishing the fi shery, what is required is species like shrimp, jewfi sh, catfi sh, Indian to recognize its salient aspects, and mitigate salmon, eels, and rays, which are sold fresh. negative impacts through better coastal area It is estimated that each unit catches fi sh management, treating the island and the worth Rs4 mn (approx. US$80,000) in a fi shing ground within one framework. The good season. Putting all the units together, Fisheries and Forest Departments have to Jambudwip produces about 16,000 tonnes develop mechanisms to collaborate with of fi sh worth Rs168 mn (approx. US$3.4mn) the fi shermen to achieve this goal. in a fi ve-month long fi shing season. “I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped According to Dr L K Banerjee, Retired Joint together”, the poet Robert Browning made Director, Botanical Survey of India, who has the Count say in My Last Duchess. In the worked on the mangroves of Sundarbans case of Jambudwip, it is high time to retract for the past 30 years, Jambudwip has the command and bring back the smiles to successive stages of vegetation, comprising the faces of the fi shermen of the island. mainly Avicennia species of mangroves, and species of grass like Porteraesia coarctata and Phoenix paludosa. The species diversity on Also online at: the island is not that signifi cant. However, http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/34/art10.pdf the satellite imageries of Jambudwip for the period 1981 to 2001 from the National

18 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier Parking in the right place

SAMUDRA Report Comment

An ecosystem-based approach to ﬁ sheries management should regard ﬁ shers as part of the ecosystem, and not as outsiders

he Vth World Parks Congress, held and industry, subject to the precautionary at Durban, South Africa from 8 to approach, which places the burden of T17 September 2003, has called upon proof for the marine environment not the international community to establish being harmed on those who commercially by 2012 “a global system of effectively benefi t from MPA resources. managed, representative networks of marine and coastal protected areas” that We welcome the World Parks Congress’ includes within its scope the world’s oceans recommendations and hope national and and seas beyond national jurisdiction as provincial governments will establish MPAs well. in consultation with local communities and other stakeholders, and that they will An important objective of the Congress’ refrain from current practices, especially in recommendations is to integrate marine several Asian countries like the Philippines, protected areas (MPAs) with other ocean, Thailand, Indonesia and India, to establish coastal and land-governance policies to MPAs by keeping out all fi shers, including achieve sustainable fi sheries, biodiversity artisanal and small-scale fi shers who use conservation, species protection and environmentally sustainable fi shing gear integrated watershed, coastal, ocean, high- and practices. Even in “strictly protected seas and polar management. areas”, we would argue for permitting artisanal and community-based fi sheries The Congress has proposed an increase in to operate, as long as their fi sheries are the marine and coastal area under MPAs, not a threat to the health of the marine and further expects 20 to 30 per cent of ecosystem, as determined by science-based each marine coastal habitat to be under observations. We would further argue that “strictly protected reserves” to safeguard an ecosystem-based approach to fi sheries diverse marine habitats and ecosystem management should consider fi shers as part structures, biodiversity conservation, species of the ecosystem, and not as outsiders. protection and recovery of endangered species. It also highlights the importance of The most diffi cult challenge to establishing implementing an ecosystem-based approach inclusive MPAs, however, would be the to sustainable fi sheries management and confl icting jurisdiction between the marine biodiversity conservation. environment and fi sheries agencies at the government level in most developing The Congress calls upon the world countries. In several Asian countries, the community to engage stakeholders, environment ministries are responsible including local and traditional communities, for setting up MPAs. Unfortunately, they This editorial in the design, planning and management, are notorious for their draconian, species- comment appeared in and sharing of benefi ts, of MPAs. It also based protectionist approach and for a SAMUDRA Report recommends sustainable socioeconomic colonial perspective that views nature as a No. 36, November 2003 returns to local and traditional communities preserve to be protected from the human

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 19 SAMUDRA Dossier

species. The responsibility to set up MPAs should ideally be taken away from the environment ministries and transferred to the fi sheries departments, and it is high time that fi sheries departments give greater emphasis to sustainable fi sheries and healthy coastal, marine ecosystems.

A consultative, ecosystem-based approach, adopting precautionary principles to industrial and other forms of destructive fi sheries and land-based sources of pollution, could be an effective management tool for sustaining fi sheries and livelihoods. While setting priorities under an ambitious list of actions proposed by the World Parks Congress, national governments should attach the greatest priority to areas of immediate concern to coastal artisanal and small-scale fi shing communities.

Also online at:

http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/36/edit.pdf

20 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier Deal with hunger and poverty ﬁ rst

SAMUDRA Report Comment

Prefabricated models of MPAs, which do not take into account local histories and knowledge systems, should be avoided

he discussions and decisions on communities, on protecting the preferential Agenda Item 18.2 on marine access of artisanal and small-scale Tand coastal biological diversity at fi shworkers to traditional fi shing grounds the recently concluded Seventh Meeting and resources, and on ensuring that the of the Conference of the Parties to the programme of work directly contributes to Convention on Biological Diversity (COP7) poverty alleviation. are highly relevant to the over 200 million artisanal and small-scale fi shworkers, most For artisanal and small-scale fi shworkers, of whom are from the developing world. this could well mean opportunities to address issues relevant to both their Coastal and indigenous fi shing communities livelihoods and biodiversity protection. undoubtedly have a long-term stake in More concretely, it could mean an the protection and sustainable use of opportunity to draw attention to, and biodiversity, given their reliance on coastal regulate, the pollution of inshore waters and marine biodiversity for livelihoods and caused by effl uents and tailings from income. It should not, therefore, come as industries, mining activities and fi shmeal any surprise that several decades before plants. It could mean the opportunity issues of conservation and sustainability of to strictly regulate bottom trawling, coastal and marine resources became part particularly in tropical, multispecies of the international agenda, fi shworkers in fi sheries. It could mean opportunities to many countries of the developing world regulate the destruction and pollution were drawing attention to, among other caused by industrial forms of aquaculture. things, the negative impacts of pollution, It could also mean that the initiatives taken uncontrolled expansion of industrial by fi shworkers to regulate and manage fi sheries and aquaculture, and technologies their resources are accorded due legal, such as bottom trawling for shrimp, institutional, fi nancial and other forms of both on coastal biodiversity and on their recognition. livelihoods. All this will, however, remain in the Against this backdrop, the commitment realms of wishful thinking if governments by governments to promote the do not put in place an enabling legal implementation of the objectives of the framework that recognizes, protects CBD, and signifi cantly reduce the current and strengthens the rights of coastal rate of loss of marine and coastal biological fi shing communities to access and use diversity by 2012 can only be welcomed. biodiversity in a responsible manner, to This editorial pursue sustainable livelihoods and to comment appeared in Equally to be welcomed is the stress on participate in decision-making and resource SAMUDRA Report participation of indigenous and local management processes at all levels. No. 37, March 2004

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 21 SAMUDRA Dossier

The very real danger of imposing prefabricated models of marine protected areas, which do not take into account local histories and knowledge systems, needs to be avoided at all costs. There is enough available experience to indicate that non-participatory conservation initiatives, which do not draw on, and recognize, local knowledge and management initiatives, are counterproductive not only in terms of protection of biodiversity, but also from the point of view of avoiding further exacerbation of poverty in communities well known for their economic and social vulnerability. As celebrated Canadian geneticist and environmentalist David Suzuki stressed in his keynote presentation to COP7, “If we don’t deal with hunger and poverty, we can forget the environment; people have other priorities”.

Also online at:

http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/37/edit.pdf

22 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier Recognize rights

Joint NGO Statement

The following statement was issued at the recent meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity

e welcome and support the Today, however, coastal and marine attention being given by biodiversity, including mangrove forests, Wthe Seventh meeting of the are under serious threat from various Conference of Parties to the Convention on sources, important among which are the Biological Diversity towards development uncontrolled expansion of industrial of the elaborated programme of work on fi sheries and the use of non-selective and marine and coastal biological diversity. destructive fi shing gear and practices such as bottom trawling, push-nets, dynamiting Over 200 million people worldwide are and cyanide poisoning, particularly in estimated to depend on inland and marine tropical multi-species fi sheries. Unregulated fi sheries and fi sh farming for a livelihood. forms of industrial aquaculture and Most of them are in the artisanal and small- pollution from land and sea-based sources scale sector in the tropical multi-species also exacerbate this threat. fi sheries of the developing world. While the artisanal and small-scale sector contributes For coastal fi shing communities, the signifi cantly to the economy and to food implications of these developments are security, there is enough evidence to severe. As “beacons of the sea”, they have, indicate that a high proportion, especially in recent decades, been consistently drawing in developing countries, continue to be attention to such negative developments among the poorest and most vulnerable and, in many cases, have taken up resource sections of society. management initiatives to nurture and rejuvenate their ecosystems. Coastal and indigenous fi shing communities have a long-term stake in the conservation Coastal fi shing communities can be and protection of biodiversity, given their powerful allies in the efforts to conserve, reliance on coastal and marine biodiversity restore and protect coastal and marine for livelihoods and income. Generations of biodiversity. Critical to this involvement, close interaction with the coastal ecosystem however, is the need to recognize, protect have led to well-developed traditional and strengthen their rights to access and ecological knowledge systems (TEKS). This use biodiversity in a responsible manner, This statement, made knowledge is manifested in numerous ways, to pursue sustainable livelihoods, and to at the COP7, 9-20 as in the diversity, selectivity and ecological participate in decision-making and resource February 2004, Kuala sophistication of the craft and gear used, management processes at all levels. Lumpur, Malaysia, on in the intimate knowledge of weather and Agenda Item 18.2: Biological diversity climate-related factors, and in the varied Thematic Programme ways in which coastal resources are used Recognition of these rights would provide of Work: marine and coastal biodiversity, for medicinal and other purposes. Such an enabling framework for coastal fi shing appeared in TEKS have contributed to sustain both the communities to fulfi l their responsibilities SAMUDRA Report livelihoods of these communities and the towards biodiversity conservation and its No. 37, March 2004 integrity of the ecosystems. sustainable use, and would contribute to

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 23 SAMUDRA Dossier

the overall objectives of the CBD, namely, including highly migratory fi sh stocks. The the conservation of biological diversity, the use of such gear and practices has been sustainable use of its components and the consistent with the principles of sustainable fair and equitable sharing of the benefi ts use of biodiversity. The rights of artisanal arising from the utilization of genetic and small-scale fi shworkers to pursue their resources. livelihoods using such forms of selective gear, under effective management systems, Moreover, protecting and supporting including in all categories of protected sustainable livelihoods in the artisanal areas, should be recognized, as a means of and small-scale fi sheries sector–a sector attaining the objectives of the Convention. known for its high levels of vulnerability This would be consistent with Article 10 and poverty–would also help achieve (c) of the Convention that highlights the international commitments on poverty need to “protect and encourage customary alleviation outlined in the Millennium use of biological resources in accordance Development Goals. It is well accepted that with traditional cultural practices that are eradication of poverty is an indispensable compatible with conservation or sustainable prerequisite for sustainable development. use requirements.”

In view of the above, we urge the Further, positive incentives should be Parties, other governments and relevant provided to promote the use of selective organizations to pay special attention to gear and practices, as through social labelling the following aspects while developing the and ecolabelling. Alternative livelihood elaborated programme of work on marine opportunities, including community-based and coastal biological diversity: tourism, should be promoted with a view to phasing out destructive fi shing practices (1) Recognize the preferential access and gear. rights of coastal fi shing communities The preferential rights of coastal fi shing (3) Prioritize the livelihood communities to responsibly and sustainably interests of natural-resources- use and access coastal and marine resources, dependent communities should be recognized by putting in place The importance of stakeholder systems that promote legal security of participation is well recognized in the tenure. This would also be in keeping with Convention and in its programmes of work. Article 6.18 of the FAO Code of Conduct It is, however, imperative to recognize and for Responsible Fisheries that encourages prioritize, in all management initiatives States to “...appropriately protect the rights and decision-making processes, including of fi shers and fi shworkers, particularly in the establishment and management of those engaged in subsistence, small-scale protected areas, and within the framework and artisanal fi sheries, to a secure and just of sustainable resource use, the interests livelihood, as well as preferential access, and participation of traditional and local where appropriate, to traditional fi shing communities who depend on the natural grounds and resources in the waters under resource base for a livelihood. their national jurisdiction.” (4) Recognize and support (2) Recognize the use of sustainable community-based management traditional fi shing gear and practices initiatives and their diversity Traditionally, coastal fi shing communities Coastal fi shing communities in several have used a range of selective fi shing gear parts of the world have traditionally been and practices to target fi sheries resources, regulating use of coastal and marine

24 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier resources. In more recent years, in view • Masifundise Development of the degradation of coastal and marine Organization, South Africa ecosystems, coastal communities have • CeDePesca, Argentina taken up diverse initiatives, such as setting up zones of strict protection, for managing • Yadfon Association, Thailand coastal and marine resources, through the • Sustainable Development establishment of community conserved Foundation, Thailand areas. The plurality within traditional and other community-based management • Southern Fisherfolk Federation, initiatives must be documented and Thailand accorded legal, institutional, fi nancial and • Instituto Terramar, Brazil other forms of recognition. • National Fisheries Solidarity (NAFSO), We draw attention to the fact that the Sri Lanka work on marine and coastal protected • Bigkis Lakas Pilipinas, Philippines areas is considered as an integral part of • Asian Social Institute (ASI), the Convention’s work on protected areas, Philippines and urge Parties to incorporate Programme Element 2 of the Programme of Work • Fisheries Action Coalition on Protected Areas on governance, Team (FACT), Cambodia participation, equity and benefi t sharing • JARING PELA, Indonesia into programme element 3 under the programme of work on marine and coastal • CNPS, Senegal biological diversity. • International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) The integration of the above aspects into the Decisions and programme of work on • Kalpavriksh, India marine and coastal biological diversity would • Forest Peoples Programme, be effective in meeting both the objectives United Kingdom of the Convention and the livelihood • AWARD, India interests of coastal fi shing communities. It would ensure that coastal and indigenous fi shing communities become powerful allies in conserving, restoring and protecting coastal and marine biodiversity.

Signatories • World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP) • National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF), Also online at: India http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/37/art08.pdf • Tambuyog Development Centre, Philippines • JALA, Advocacy Network for North Sumatra Fisherfolk, Indonesia • Penang Inshore Fishermen Welfare Association (PIFWA), Malaysia

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 25 SAMUDRA Dossier Filleting Nemo

Bob McDonald

For many indigenous communities, national and marine parks can be signiﬁ cant threats to their hunting and ﬁ shing rights

ith the rapid loss of wild no-take zones for scientifi c purposes but landscapes in the 19th century, otherwise accommodated and protected WWestern nations created ‘national a large commercial and recreational parks’ to preserve ‘wild’ landscapes and, fi shery. Though designed to protect the in the 20th century, to protect examples marine environment, the park housed of habitat and the species they contain– within, and adjacent to it, a number before they were lost entirely. Early marine of tourist development projects that parks were established for much the same destroyed mangroves and small sections reason. of reef–despite some major conservation campaigns. In Africa, Asia and central America, national parks were later designed to attract Other marine parks based on the ‘fi sheries Western tourism revenue and aid. In some inclusive’ model were established, like the instances, they displaced local communities, Solitary Islands marine park on the north and traditional owners became ‘poachers’. coast of New South Wales (NSW) by NSW For many indigenous communities, Fisheries. national parks and, indeed, marine parks, can be signifi cant threats to their hunting Here a co-operative approach with all and fi shing rights. stakeholders in deciding no-take zones worked well, with additional protection In Australia, threats by the Queensland of estuaries some distance inland, while State Government to drill for oil on the allowing for fi shing near small coastal Great Barrier Reef in the 1980s saw the towns. federal government, in response to a public outcry, establish one of the world’s largest No-take zones were established through marine parks, jointly managed with the agreement with specifi c objectives such State government. as the protection of shoreline corals and grey nurse shark. The fi shing industry and Marine reserves were established in Victoria community guarded ‘their’ marine park, and This article, by around the same time, though a lack of local businesses sponsored the management, Bob McDonald, initial consultation with local communities providing a management vehicle. an Australia-based led to considerable opposition. However, naturalist who works they were eventually established, and Sadly, this marine reserve too was later with the commercial included most recreational and commercial compromised, with the National Parks fishing industry on fi sheries. These fi rst marine reserves also Department taking management from the habitat protection, protected public (crown) land well above Fisheries Department and adopting a less management and the high-tide mark. co-operative and more aggressive approach restoration, appeared to management. A large sewerage ocean in SAMUDRA Report The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park outfall was also established within the No. 38, July 2004 originally included a series of very small boundaries of the reserve.

26 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier

Principal threat amplifying the social and economic impact By the late 1990s, many marine scientists of the no-take zones–and the opposition to and various government bodies in many them. countries had established in the public’s Through the late 1990s, representative mind, fi shing as a principal threat to bodies, legislated for both commercial and fi sheries and the marine environment. recreational fi shing industries, had been As fi shing rights were privatized and replaced by government-appointed bodies. commodifi ed under individual tradeable/ These now included competing interests, transferable quotas (ITQs) and ‘days at sea’ with representation from processors, catch management regimes, fi sh species in importers and other sectors squeezing out each country were presented by scientists the voices of commercial fi shfolk. Even as threatened by commercial fi shing. the ‘women in industry’ body included women from the world of science, wives of This increasing emphasis on ‘overfi shing’ managers and so on–hardly fi shfolk–thus shifted the marine conservation debate effectively muffl ing the voices of women This increasing away from the protection of the marine from the traditional owner-operator fl eets. emphasis on environment against pollution and the ‘overfi shing’ impact of mining and logging. Oil exploration shifted the marine The Commonwealth established in the late conservation debate In early 2000, the Victorian State govern- 1990s the National Oceans Offi ce, which ment proposed a series of marine parks to established marine parks that allowed oil/ away from the ‘protect’ fi ve per cent of the State’s coasts. gas exploration while banning fi shing in protection of the The proposal was met with Statewide distant-water Antarctic territories, targeting marine environment protests. The government negotiated the the control of international Patagonian against pollution and location of no-take zones under the threat toothfi sh fi sheries. In early 2000, it proposed of a potential massive electoral backlash the impact of mining a series of large marine parks approved and logging. from the unlikely coalition of recreational by State and federal ‘appointed industry and commercial fi shing communities. They bodies’ for southeastern Australia. These had worked ‘outside’ the initially soft State marine parks allow oil and gas exploration, bodies and then ‘dragged’ them along. including seismic testing, with the inclusion of select commercial fi sheries, limited The original marine reserves were re- by method and not scale–again creating legislated. The new marine parks now allow de facto fi sheries management decisions. exploration by seismic testing and drilling, while removing protection for mangroves The management of the Great Barrier Reef and salt-marsh on adjacent public land in Marine Park too has changed. Select marine the original reserves. scientists seemed to lead the campaign in 2003, with government blessing, to establish These Victorian marine parks did not come no-take zones covering nearly a third of the about as a result of community campaigns Great Barrier Reef. The tourism industry, but were imposed. Their value for ‘restocking especially the dive industry, was identifi ed fi sheries’ became part of the ‘spin’ used to as the principal benefi ciary. For tour boat campaign for them by government. Their and marina operators, implementation boundaries, especially of no-take zones, of legislation to regulate the containment were chosen by selecting places with the and discharge of sewerage from boats highest recorded catches, and assuming a and ports was further delayed–a far more link with biodiversity. These criteria initially critical problem than the heavily regulated saw the targeting of the limited ‘lee shores’, commercial fi sheries.

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 27 SAMUDRA Dossier

The Queensland government had run an dugong, and so a marine park no-take zone effective campaign targeting recreational was necessary. Poorly marked, it is a ‘trap’ for fi shing too, educating recreational fi shermen Indonesian fi shermen. They are prohibited to ‘blame themselves’ for catching too from using navigational aids or motors many fi sh in the past, and building on the by the Australian Fisheries Management recent introduction of strict bag limits for Authority’s literal interpretation of the select recreational species. The recreational ‘traditional fi shing rights’ to be maintained fi shing lobby was given some recreational as the territory got transferred from fi shing-only areas and were effectively Indonesian control. Many fi shermen are silenced. in Australian jails–around 200 Indonesian fi shermen at any one time. The creation of recreational fi shing zones had also been effectively used by the NSW To be sure, marine parks can be useful tools government to greatly reduce commercial for the management of ecotourism and the fi shing in estuaries and estuarine lakes in marine environment. But, to be effective, the south. This again re-established the they must always be created with local notion that it is fi shing alone that principally community support. The co-operation determines the abundance of fi sh. The of the adjacent local communities is economic justifi cation was simplistic. Fish essential to their management, and small- landed by recreational fi shfolk were seen boat commercial fi sheries play a key as more valuable to the economy than the role in enforcement and cost-effective same fi sh caught by commercial fi shing– environmental monitoring. though, in this case, the highest value commercial fi shery, sea mullet, is not fi shed Marine parks without community support recreationally. or small-boat commercial fi sheries are extremely expensive to ‘enforce’. It is very This approach was, in turn, followed by important that the aim of any proposed ongoing restrictions on the recreational marine park is widely discussed and clearly catch, with limits or bans on the landing of presented, and that local communities an increasing variety of fi sh species. Each are genuinely engaged. Marine parks are Australian State is moving towards fully ‘forever’, so plenty of time must be taken regulating recreational fi shing and using it as to establish them. People play an essential its principal source of fi nance for fi sheries role in these parks and the ‘hard-hearted management. In NSW, recreational licence puritan’ approach of the urban West–total fees were used for the commercial industry protection for all species and the exclusion buyout, as they were in Victoria. Victoria of humans–is impractical, unachievable, also implemented additional recreational and economically, ecologically and socially fi shing areas, closing a series of coastal unsustainable. lakes suddenly and passing retrospective legislation to stop a single fi sherman Wide variety challenging this decision in court. If habitat protection is to be used for fi sheries management, then it must refl ect The marine park around Ashmore Reef the actual needs of a wide variety of marine off northwestern Australia was proclaimed species. This will likely lead to management without any research or consultation. It of widely dispersed shared habitats like was simply assumed that if Indonesian coral reefs, mangroves, salt-marsh and fi shermen were allowed to continue to coastal wetlands and the stream and river fi sh there, they would ‘threaten’ turtles and systems that feed them.

28 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier

Some of these areas will have to be cleared waters under expensive catch management and drained in the future for agriculture, regimes. Local employment may well be industry, coastal development and water limited to deckhands for foreign-owned diversion associated with population corporate fl eets. growth. These types of habitat and the quality and strength of stream fl ow must be Similarly, poorly planned marine parks may recognized as important to fi sh production. damage the local traditional economy by Stream fl ow could also be re-established in depriving people of existing rights to harvest areas where fi sh production is required. the marine environment. Governments interested in export income from foreign Commercial fi sheries, small or large, tourists who come to watch fi sh, not eat are an industry and, as such, their them, may favour and ‘overprotect’ marine management needs an economic, rather ecosystems that can easily sustain coastal People play an than a conservation, framework. The fi sh fi sheries and vibrant ecotourism. essential role in production and tourism of a given marine these parks and environment generate signifi cant income. Rather than just “fi nding Nemo” (the This income gives an economic value to title of a Disney animated fi lm that subtly the ‘hard-hearted all the various components of that marine ‘humanizes’ fi sh), fi sheries and marine park puritan’ approach environment–from the mangroves to corals managements must always be clear of the of the urban and the quality and quantity of fresh water need to also “fi llet Nemo” to maintain West–total protection fl owing to the coast. Inclusive marine parks good health, economic independence and for all species can provide both a focus for management the marine environment. and the exclusion and a ‘boundary’ to calculate the economic/ of humans–is fi nancial value of a wide variety of habitat impractical, types. unachievable, Those who catch fi sh species that rely directly and economically, on these coastal habitats and indirectly ecologically (like tuna that feed on the bait fi sh they and socially produce) benefi t most from investing in the unsustainable. management, maintenance and restoration of essential habitats. Such investment in management of coastal habitat feeding into coastal marine environments, funded in part by those who fi sh in them (or eat the fi sh) and utilize them for tourism, will enhance their value to all.

Many nations will fi nd themselves at management crossroads in the near future Also online at: as the demand for, and value of, fi sh from their waters, and their value as exports, http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/38/art01.pdf increase. They will have to choose between adapting essentially traditional and regionally evolved fi sheries, and catch-management regimes with the internationalization of fi shing rights. The latter will likely see the gradual loss of fi shing rights from territorial

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 29 SAMUDRA Dossier The power of co-management

SAMUDRA Report Comment

Co-management in ﬁ sheries should not imply pushing all costs on to local communities

o-management, intended as a resource users at all stages of resource collaborative and participatory management, it is important. However, Carrangement between governments experience from various parts of the and resource users to share the responsibility world indicates that often the government for resource management, is increasingly commitment to participation of actual users being put forward as a framework for the remains on paper. The article from South management of fi sheries resources, partly Africa (see page 37), for example, points out also due to the perceived failure, or inability, that all too often, brief consultation takes of centralized fi sheries-management the place of genuine local involvement in regimes. decisionmaking in the co-management of resources, in this case in the management of Co-management arrangements may be more marine protected areas (MPAs). effective in a context where property rights are well defi ned. As pointed out by Svein Co-management of fi sheries resources Jentoft, co-management arrangements needs to ensure genuine involvement in situations where community property of gear groups, and consultation with rights are established and recognized, are their representatives. Particularly where likely to be more effective, as they enable traditional institutions for management communities to control access, to sanction, and confl ict-resolution exist, it would be and to exclude others. However, the co- essential to recognize them and ensure management framework also has relevance their integration within co-management in fi sheries where property rights are not arrangements. defi ned, undoubtedly a more common situation in fi sheries across the world Co-management efforts will also need where governance structures are still poor. to recognize the fact of large power The advantage of co-management is that differentials between various stakeholders it enables governments and fi shery gear in the co-management process, and, groups to adopt and develop meaningful in the interests of equity, will need to fi sheries-management measures that can take steps to prioritize the concerns and minimize costs and that can also expect participation of those lower down in realization of management goals in a the power hierarchy–small-scale fi shing reasonable time frame. At least, it is one communities, and, particularly, the women way to develop appropriate fi sheries- in these communities. Conversely, it would management measures that can engender be imperative to work towards developing ownership among all user groups, even in the capacity of communities to engage with This editorial the absence of property rights. co-management. comment appeared in SAMUDRA Report To the extent that co-management recognizes Co-management should not mean pushing No. 42, the signifi cance of the participation of all costs on to local communities, as is November 2005

30 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier happening in certain situations. Some costs, such as, for example, the costs of effective enforcement and keeping in check encroachments by the industrial/large- scale/mechanized ﬂ eet, should be borne by the State. The need is not for ‘less’ State, but for a more effective, accountable and responsive State.

And fi nally, in the context of so many donor-supported co-management projects working in specifi c locations with communities, there is a risk of a fragmented approach to resource management. It makes little sense if communities and local governments were to manage adjacent Co-management areas, while rampant fi shing by the large- efforts will also scale/industrial/mechanized fl eet continues need to recognize unchecked just outside the managed areas. the fact of large Co-management arrangements must be power differentials developed at the larger level, taking into between various account the natural management unit, with stakeholders... both small-scale and large-scale fi sheries being viewed through the same lens, as it were.

Also online at:

http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/42/edit.pdf

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 31 SAMUDRA Dossier Dreams vs painful realities

Regina Célia Di Ciommo

There are contradictions aplenty on both land and sea in the Corumbau Marine Extractive Reserve in Brazil

his article describes some of the systems and populations, but now they can social and environmental aspects cover land, sea or both. The original decree Tof the Ponta do Corumbau Marine that created RESEX states that “extractive Extractive Reserve, located on Costa do reserves are territorial spaces designated for Descobrimento, 800 km south of Salvador, the self-sustaining use and conservation of the capital city of the State of Bahia, renewable natural resources by extractive Brazil. The region is home to part of what populations”. remains of the Mata Atlântica, areas of mangroves and coral reefs, recognized In the case of the marine extractive reserves, in 1999 as a World Historical Site by the a marine area is assigned for the exclusive United Nations Educational, Scientifi c and use of a number of people (small-scale Cultural Organization (UNESCO). fi shermen, traditional communities, etc.) who live around it. Marine extractive reserves are a form of marine protected areas with defi ned Although it is a partnership between the user rights that are contracted out to the people and the government, the initiative communities of resource users who live in has to come from the local population, and the surrounding area. They are an adaptation the participation of the people is a must. of the reservas extractivistas or RESEX, a novel Comunities that live adjacent to RESEX, and unique partnership in natural resource and the organizations that represent them extraction and conservation that Brazil has (associations, co-operatives, syndicates, been experimenting with since 1989. unions, etc.) may apply for the rights to extract resources from the RESEX. On the one hand, the move refl ects growing offi cial recognition in Brazil of the role A central plank in all RESEX is the of traditional resource users and their development of a utilization plan (plano de management systems in environmental utilização) that determines who can use the This article, by resources in question and how. In essence, Regina Célia Di conservation. On the other, it is the product of the struggles of the rubber tapper this is a social contract, binding the resource Ciommo, of the users to a mutually agreed set of operating Human Ecology unions, under the leadership of Chico rules. Such rules could govern measures and Ethnoecology Mendez. It is thanks to these struggles that such as minimum catch size, technology Laboratory at the legislation was passed in 1989, allowing used, or restricted access to important Federal University of for the establishment of extractive breeding grounds. San Carlos, Brazil, reserves. Extractive reserves comprise a collaborative management regime where and translated by Public forum Brian O’Riordan, government works in partnership with Decisions over what the rules should be are appeared in local communities for the sustainable use defi ned by the resource users themselves at SAMUDRA Report of resources. No. 42, a public forum where they have the right to November 2005 Originally, RESEX focused on protecting vote on decisions made. It is essential that terrestrial and other inland ecological resource users participate at this stage since

32 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier the adherence to rules depends, to a large As this article shows, there are many degree, on their widespread understanding problems that need to be addressed if and prior approval. The utilization plan, RESEX are to function effectively. One such along with the process leading to its creation, issue, highlighted by the work of Alpina is also important for resolving (or at least Begossi, is that, athough a great variety of revealing) confl icts amongst resource users extractive reserves now exist in Brazil, few as well as confl icts between resource users can be said to be the result of a legitimate and the larger community. process of local organization in the face of the threat of depletion of their resources. A further essential element is the concession contract that legalizes the user rights of the This is not the case with the Ponta do communities. This agreement is prepared Corumbau Marine Extractive Reserve by IBAMA, the Brazilian Institute for the (Corumbau RESEX). In 1998, a group of Environment, and signed by both parties. artisanal fi shermen from nine communities Individual resource users are then issued in the municipalities of Prado and with Authorization of Use certifi cates. Porto Seguro came together to create Marine extractive These entitle them to open-ended user a conservation unit that would protect reserves are a form rights, which, in practice, extend for 10-20 the region from the unsustainable prawn of marine protected years, but may be extended for as long as trawling being carried out by the industrial areas with defi ned the RESEX fulfi lls its purpose. fi shing fl eet. user rights that are contracted out to According to Antonio Carlos Diegues of Sustainable exploitation the University of São Paulo, the framework the communities The Corumbau RESEX was then established of resource users of restricted access to, and economic use in September 2000, thanks to the initiatives of, the coastal sea space of the RESEX of artisanal fi shermen from nine different who live in the offers Brazil a way to begin controlling communities, with its use conceded to surrounding area. the highly destructive and unmanaged the traditional extractive populations, in development of its extensive coastal zone accordance with the National System of (harbouring a wide range of habitats of Conservation Units. According its founding high conservation value, not only coral decree, the Corumbau RESEX “aims at reefs), while, at the same time, reinforcing ensuring the sustainable exploitation and the resource-use rights and territorial the conservation of renewable natural claims of local communities to the micro- resources, traditionally used by the local environments of small-scale fi shing. extractive population”.

Such controls are clearly needed in the The extractive population of the RESEX southern coastal zones of Bahia State, comprises 484 registered members, which have been subject to signifi cant traditional users of the resources resident environmental and social changes in the in nine communities: Curuípe, Caraíva, last 10 years. Intense industrial fi shing was Aldeia Indígena Pataxó de Barra Velha, initiated to exploit the local marine stocks, Corumbau, Veleiro, Barra do Cahy, with no respect for biological processes or Imbassuaba, Cumuruxatiba and Japara. biodiversity. Tourism development has given When the families of these fi shermen are rise to demands that have led to a disordered included, the RESEX resources will directly occupation of the land, while the urban benefi t some 1,750 people. infrastructure has been unable to keep pace with the increase in domestic effl uents and The Corumbau RESEX includes part sea, litter, affecting the mangrove forests and the and part land, with areas of foreshore, margins of the rivers. dunes and mangroves. The marine part of

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 33 SAMUDRA Dossier

the Corumbau RESEX covers 90,000 ha, There is no electricity supply in the villages, with its landside boundary demarcated by with the exception of Cumuruxatiba and the high-water level. The land areas, where some hotels that possess generators. This is the extractive communities live, make up a constraint for fi sh storage, and increases the ‘surrounding area’ or ‘buffer zone’. the dependence on intermediaries to market products. These factors also work The property-rights and user-rights regimes against the active participation of the local that govern conservation, ownership extractive population in the establishment and resource extraction differ in the two and development of a utilization plan and areas, giving rise to contradictions in the their participation in the wider management conservation and resource extraction policy decision-making processes of the RESEX. objectives of the RESEX, and complicating life and livelihoods in the communities. A further stumbling block, and source of social confl icts, is the presence of more In the publicly owned marine area, only powerful economic interests such as hotels the extractive communities have resource and tourism businesses. These interests -extraction rights. However, the land area is are fueling a growing speculation in real under private ownership, and the extractive estate. RESEX community residents are communities have no resource-extraction being forced to sell their houses at very low rights there. Furthermore, there are no prices and move far away where there is no guarantees or conditions provided for the infrastructure or government assistance of permanent settlement of the extractive any kind. populations in the surrounding land area, a key condition for establishing economic Also, due to the increasing privatization activities and for providing sociocultural of access to, and use of, the coastal strip, stability in communities. access to the sea is becoming more diffi cult for the communities. This is leading to a This contradiction between the land and gradual cultural erosion and the complete sea components of the Corumbau RESEX, exclusion of the fi shermen from areas near arising from the way that the property- and the seashore. use-rights regimes have been set up, is the root cause of many of the social confl icts, Private interests and represents a major problem for the The variety of private economic interests effective functioning of the RESEX. Alpina also makes it diffi cult for the local Begossi’s work in the Amazon concluded population to support conservation policies that extractive reserves do offer signifi cant and participative processes that are capable potential for political organization, and of offering alternative solutions to the improving environmental and social confl icts existing in local society. Tourism resilience, compared to other conservation is expanding in the Corumbau RESEX. approaches. Such a satisfactory level of Visitors are attracted by the tranquility, institutional development has still to be freedom and the beauty of the countryside, attained in Corumbau. particularly in the littoral zones, and by the One major stumbling block for achieving hospitality of its people. satisfactory levels of institiutional However, the capacity of the villages to development is that the ‘surrounding support tourist activity is quite limited. This areas’ where the communities live are is mainly due to a lack of basic infrastructure, isolated. Roads are unpaved, the bridges such as energy, piped water, the treatment precarious and there is no regular transport and disposal of solid and liquid waste, and by boat. health and education facilities.

34 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier

The National System of Conservation recognizes that women and men have Units assures the participation of the local different needs, perceptions and realities in populations through co-management, where accordance with their age and sex. power is decentralized, in ways appropriate to the daily reality of the local context. The Equity goals RESEX utilization plan was drawn up and Through the use of appropriate tools, approved in 2002, and should lead on to it seeks to expose the power relations in the management plan. the community. It is designed to assist the introduction of the changes necessary in Meanwhile, the fi shermen do not appear the delivery of policies that seek to achieve to be familiar with the objectives of the equity. The aim of PAGP is to promote planning exercise. Recent research shows collective responsibility, environmental that just 14 per cent of the residents of justice and quality of life for the populations Cumuruxatiba, 25 per cent of Corumbau involved, so as to decrease impoverishment and 45 per cent of Caraíva knew about the and consequent social exclusion. utilization plan in force and the rules that The variety of regulate the reserve. It has been demonstrated that the private economic introduction of the variable ‘gender’ adds interests also makes The factors indicated as obstacles to another dimension to the analysis of natural it diffi cult for the the participative process were the environments, given that there are unequal local population to large distances between the venues of power relations between men and women support conservation meetings, the incompatibility of the in many societies, power relations that policies and timing of meetings with daily routine are subject to change. Within the gender activities (principally for the women), and dimension, there can be complementarity participative processes the shortage of information about the and space for negotiation. The possibility that are capable of process of foundation and administration. for negotiation has important implications offering alternative A Participatory Appraisal from a Gender for planning and management, since it puts solutions to the Perspective (PAGP) exercise was carried the planners and the communities at a level confl icts existing in out with the aim of promoting the active where it is possible to promote greater local society. participation of the various interest groups equity in the distribution of the benefi ts, of the RESEX communities, especially and user and management rights. women, in the management of the area, faced as they are with changes imposed The PAGP carried out in the Corumbau by tourism. The PAGP techniques and RESEX had aimed to understand the tools used were those recommended by obstacles to the participation of the IUCN–The World Conservation Union. In traditional population in the management order to provide an analysis with a gender plan, as well as to obtain information on perspective, information gathering and the local infrastructure available to the data presentation were disaggregated by residents and visitors. It aimed at providing gender. This enabled an examination of information to improve the participative the needs and demands of men and women process, which would safeguard the success seperately. of environmental policies in the face of the reality of the expansion of tourism Through a systematic process, PAGP helps in the region, with economic and cultural to identify particular problems and their consequences for its inhabitants. origins, where knowledge is built up with the participation and collaboration of the The application of PAGP achieved people affected. Rather than observing its objective of identifying the needs, the group as a homogenous unit, PAGP expectations, wants and problems of the

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 35 SAMUDRA Dossier

communities visited. The main needs of the communities, and the sharing of are related to access to electricity, quality benefi ts with the residents. education and better health conditions. Another benefi t to be sought is Beyond that, the wants most highlighted environmental education aimed at tourists were roads and bridges and piped potable and the community, based on information water. While, on the one hand, electricity is and output of the appraisal carried out. a dream for both male and female residents, If the objective were sustainable tourism, on the other, there are those living by hotels then the communities should benefi t and tourist resorts who prefer to preserve with improved basic infrastructure in the the bucolic and rustic aspects that attract villages. tourists, leading to profi table business during the seasons. Thus, the lack of Reconciling such a diversifi ed and surfacing on the sand roads of Caraíva, for contradictory set of interests is a challenge example, makes daily life very diffi cult for that will have to be faced by those in charge the women, but is seen by others as giving of the development and implementation a picturesque air to the place. of the new management plan.

The onus of maintaining this rusticity Rules needed falls, in the end, on the local population, Most importantly, in order to guarantee particularly on the women who, in their sustainability, rules must be set not only day-to-day lives throughout the whole to control tourism activities and the year, have to cope with extremely tiresome distribution of its benefi ts, but also conditions. Roads are also the subject of to restrict the way economic interests debates and confl icts, both among the are causing real-estate speculation in population and between conservation the area. At the same time, the regular bodies, who see in them the threat of mass participation of the population in the tourism and a consequent loss of cultural RESEX administration must be assured, and environmental character, which while maintaining gender equity. This could represents a great contradiction for the help empower the community through administration of the Conservation Unit. participatory management, raise the quality of life of the residents and ensure The possibility of seeing the community their contribution to the conservation of uniting around its objectives, and fi ghting ecosystem biodiversity. for the collective welfare, is an important ‘dream’ for the women, even transcending their individual objectives.

It is hoped that participative management can result in measures favouring political strengthening and income generation, preserving local knowledge and the permanence of the native population in the area. The preparation of a socio- Also online at: environmental participatory appraisal http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/42/art04.pdf can contribute to the involvement of the population in public policies for improved living conditions, the systematic inspection of tourism enterprises that affect the life

36 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier Making local communities visible Carolyn Petersen, Naseegh Jaffer and Jackie Sunde

As examples from South Africa show, there are issues surrounding MPAs and the livelihoods of coastal communities within them

arine protected areas (MPAs) or Numerous studies have found that it is marine parks are increasingly often the poorest households that are Mbeing used as a way of protecting most dependent on natural resources. coastal and marine resources, based on Protected areas have, therefore, often led scientifi c principles of safeguarding the to further impoverishment of those living ecological resource, in the context of in poverty. This inattention paid to the widespread marine resource depletion. livelihoods and socioeconomic situation of As such, they are a potentially positive local communities refl ects a general trend intervention, as they seek to achieve the in environmental conservation, despite a conservation of coastal resources as a growing consensus that poverty and weak whole for current and future generations of governance are two of the most signifi cant people. Claims are made about the benefi ts underlying threats to conservation. of MPAs for the environment and for local people, including that they can provide an This article examines the issues around MPAs increase in stocks in less restricted fi shing and livelihoods of coastal communities areas adjacent to the protected areas, as within them, with reference to examples in well as indirect benefi ts through tourism. South Africa. Findings were drawn from However, such benefi ts only occur if MPAs across the three coastal provinces of the are properly managed–yet fi gures from Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu- the World Wide Fund for Nature–or, as Natal, using a range of key informants and This article, it is known in North America, the World available literature. by Carolyn Petersen, Wildlife Fund (WWF)–estimate that 80 Naseegh Jaffer per cent of MPAs worldwide are protected International and national guidelines and Jackie Sunde, in name only and are not being managed for the setting up and management of Masifundise actively or effectively. MPAs include a strong emphasis on Development Trust, stakeholder involvement. However, in Cape Town, South In some cases, protected areas in general practice, provisions are weak, and local Africa, which forms (including land-based ones) have failed to coastal communities are often effectively part of a longer sustain the wildlife populations they were invisible in the MPA process, despite having paper presented at designed to protect, while, at the same traditionally fi shed in the protected areas for the first International time, having a negative impact on the food centuries or more, and despite the fact that Marine Protected security and livelihoods of local people. many rely on fi shing for their livelihoods Area Conference They have, in practice, been associated and food security. (IMPAC1), held in with forced displacement and loss of Australia in October access to natural resources of those living In the context of concerns over equity in 2005, appeared in in and around them, with inadequate or no marine resource allocation, the increased SAMUDRA Report compensation. regulation of fi shing that accompanies No. 42, November 2005

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 37 SAMUDRA Dossier

the creation of marine parks often management. Performance and monitoring disproportionately affects under-resourced requirements in the national legislation are local fi shing communities, compared with also weak. Furthermore, existing manage- other stakeholders. ment agreements between national parks/ MPA authorities and MCM are predominantly Local communities concerned with enforcement against illegal Furthermore, in South Africa, little effort has fi shing, not other aspects of management. been made to fi nd out the impact of MPAs Nevertheless, illegal fi shing or poaching on local communities. The lack of data on was stated to be a problem in all the MPAs the impact on livelihoods is problematic, investigated, in many cases jeopardizing the considering the obvious connection between state of the resources. This included small- the socioeconomic characteristics and scale to large-scale poaching. attitudes of local communities, and the type of management and enforcement of marine The evidence points to the fact that resources required within protected areas. genuine increased community involvement has a benefi cial effect on conservation aims Those living adjacent to MPAs in South in MPAs, with increased community buy- Africa have been adversely affected in in and respect for regulations. National many cases by a rollover of spatial patterns and international legislation now requires resulting from land dispossession and the the consultation or public participation setting up of protected areas during the of stakeholders in the setting up and apartheid era. Local communities’ access management of MPAs. to coastal resources has been affected by However, the mechanisms by which removals as part of apartheid and colonial participation is to be carried out are not spatial legislation, and, more recently, by specifi ed, and, therefore, real involvement the growth of the tourism industry and has been limited, especially where the the real-estate/property boom. In many MPAs continue protection of an area that cases, MPAs have retained some protected was set up when local participation was area boundaries set up during apartheid, not required. This has caused confl ict or reinforcing discriminatory land ownership protest action in many MPAs. and access. Although this may be for sound environmental reasons, it has led to Recent MPAs resentment in local communities, especially For some MPAs declared more recently, where there has been limited participation such as the Table Mountain National Park in decisionmaking. (TMNP), the level of consultation has been higher. The TMNP has sought to impinge Current management of MPAs, in general, as little as possible on major fi shing areas is inadequate, both internationally and for permit holders, albeit imperfectly for nationally. A joint WWF-Marine and small-scale fi shers. In several other MPAs, Coastal Management (MCM) report found multi-use zoning–which allows fi shing in that only seven out of 19 MPAs in South certain areas–has not been embraced, and Africa had formal management agreements buy-in to this principle from MCM has been in 2003–those without formal agreements inadequate. appear to be faring worse. Many MPA authorities lack the capacity for effective Although the current discourse emphasizing enforcement; management funding for involvement of local communities in the MPAs has not been a government priority; management of protected areas does bring and budgets have been cut. In many cases, benefi ts to those communities, in many staff capacity is insuffi cient for effective cases, the limits placed on the level at which

38 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier participation takes place means that it is Access denied unlikely to adequately compensate them for In the context of a denial of access, people their exclusion from access to the natural in local traditional fi shing communities resources in those protected areas. This still have a very strong social and cultural includes the vast majority of government connection with the sea and with fi shing. livelihoods and poverty alleviation initiatives, which lack sustainability. Changes that have been enforced relatively recently, and visibly extended within the In most cases, only brief consultation of last decade of democracy, have brought to specifi c stakeholders has been implemented, the fore a fundamental clash of cultures– rather than genuine local involvement in between predominantly ‘traditional’, decisionmaking, with the result that such communal ways of managing and consultation can be used to legitimate harvesting natural resources, and ‘modern’ top-down decisionmaking. This extends (industrial), individual, private property- to what is termed ‘co-management’ of based quotas. MPAs are one manifestation natural resources in South Africa–this has In most cases, only of the enforcement of the State as the brief consultation generally meant very little involvement effective owner of all natural resources, in decisionmaking regarding resource an idea that many people in local coastal of specifi c utilization. For example, in Dwesa-Cwebe communities would contest. stakeholders has MPA, where local people are supposedly co- been implemented, managing marine resources, no fi shing at all Furthermore, fi shermen feel that their rather than genuine is permitted. Furthermore, where fi shing is indigenous knowledge and traditional local involvement allowed in the protected areas, in most cases, methods, including rotation of areas in decisionmaking, the subsistence level and low-value resource and resources, are not being recognized use allowed by marine park authorities by scientifi c measures or government with the result that do not satisfy basic needs or livelihood regulations. such consultation requirements, including rent, school fees can be used to and basic services, where available. Even Recreational fi shers and industrial legitimate top-down subsistence fi shers operate in a monetized companies, with their better resources and decisionmaking. economy, and, therefore, if insuffi cient greater political infl uence, can much better alternative livelihood opportunities are lobby government on access and policies available, illegal fi shing is likely to occur than small-scale fi shers and poverty- when subsistence fi shing does not cover stricken communities, leading to greater basic needs. resentment among the communities in the MPAs researched. Government authorities In practice, public participation can be are reluctant to jeopardize access for fraught with problems, and requires a recreational fi shers since they are a major genuine, long-term commitment on the source of revenue in the form of tourism part of the relevant authorities. Capacity in MPAs. Furthermore, recreational fi shers constraints and communication gaps have escaped regulation and enforcement have meant that communication among to a large extent in the past. government departments and agencies, and between government and communities, Levels of poverty in coastal areas in South has generally been inadequate, leading to Africa are signifi cant in most areas where the confl ation of issues of land, marine MPAs are situated–with the highest average resource and general service provision by levels in the Eastern Cape province (48 per communities, and a resulting lack of co- cent), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (26) and operation with government. the Western Cape (12), representing the

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 39 SAMUDRA Dossier

percentage of people whose household the macroeconomic level (including foreign expenditure was R800 (approx. US$119) currency revenue for the State), over the or less per month. The Wild Coast in the socioeconomic concerns of livelihoods Eastern Cape has one of the highest levels and poverty alleviation for local people. of poverty in the country–between 60 per cent and 80 per cent. Legitimacy issue MPAs cannot be considered in isolation from However, such fi gures hide huge disparities the areas and communities surrounding between rich and poor–in most provinces, them–the marginalization of local inequality is increasing, particularly in the communities puts the legitimacy of MPAs Western Cape, where many people in coastal at stake, and has serious consequences both areas are unable to enjoy the benefi ts of the for the management of protected areas burgeoning, but highly capital-intensive, and for the ecological resource itself due tourism industry. In towns surrounding to increased incidences of poaching. Issues the West Coast National Park, over 40 per around management of MPAs, in general, cent of people were recorded as having no exacerbate this problem. While MPAs have income, according to the 2001 census. The an important contribution to make, their Eastern Cape province, where fi ve MPAs strategy alone is unlikely to provide the are situated, has suffered particularly from solution to all management and resource- racially defi ned apartheid spatial policies, access problems MPAs are only one of a although other provinces have also been range of suitable management tools. considerably affected. Severe lack of investment in certain areas, combined We, therefore, propose a more equitable with restrictions on movement and land sharing of the costs and benefi ts for ownership elsewhere, meant that specifi c stakeholders involved in MPAs, so that areas such as the Wild Coast became local communities and the socioeconomic overcrowded and were systematically denied impacts of MPAs are made visible, and access to resources and services, resulting local people are genuinely involved in in high levels of poverty and reliance on management decisionmaking. If managed marine resources. Therefore, the pressures effectively to include local communities of high population and poverty, as well as in genuine partnership with managing poor land and coastal management outside authorities–and if alternative livelihood the reserves, are detrimental to the state opportunities are provided–MPAs of the natural resources, and has direct could address both socioeconomic and impacts on MPAs. environmental conservation concerns.

Without improved management of restricted areas, policy developments in South Africa are likely to further endanger the livelihoods of ﬁ shers living adjacent to marine parks, since the department responsible for ﬁ sheries has expressed its intention to substantially increase the no-take zones within marine park areas from 1 per cent to 20 per cent of protected areas. Also online at:

The emphasis on environmental concerns http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/42/art07.pdf in MPA management hides a predominance of considerations of growth and proﬁ t at

40 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier An uncommon tragedy

SAMUDRA Report Comment

Coastal ﬁ shing communities can be powerful allies in conserving, restoring and protecting coastal and marine biodiversity

ecent reports about suicides by Orissa Traditional Fish Workers Union fi shermen in Kendrapara, Orissa, (OTFWU). India, can only be described as R It is important that the message from this shocking, particularly as there have rarely, if ever, been reports of fi shermen committing tragedy does not go unheard. Traditional suicide. Notably, these suicides have taken fi shworkers must be made equal and place in a State considered one of the effective partners in identifying socially poorest in India, with about 47 per cent of just conservation and management the population estimated to be below the measures, and specifi c steps to cushion the poverty line. socioeconomic impacts of conservation should be implemented. For example, Investigations have indicated that the where research conclusively establishes suicides were linked to the restrictions on that certain types of fi shing gear, whether fi shing activity and subsequent declines in traditional or trawl, have detrimental income following the declaration of the impacts, regulation on their use should be accompanied by adequate fi nancial Gahirmatha (Marine) Wildlife Sanctuary in assistance for shifting to other permissible 1997, to protect the olive ridley sea turtle gear. Training and other fi nancial assistance in its nesting and breeding habitat (see for alternative livelihood programmes for page 46). Declining incomes from fi shing fi shworkers displaced from the fi shery as in a context of high indebtedness, lack of a result of conservation measures should social security nets, and few alternative also be considered. livelihood options have proved to be a shock fi shermen have found diffi cult to The importance of comprehensive bear. Many fi shermen are reported to have socioeconomic data on communities migrated out of Kendrapara District, some living adjacent to turtle conservation are burdened with extreme mental distress, areas, to gauge the potential impact of while, over the past four years, at least seven conservation programmes on them, cannot fi shermen have taken the extreme step of be overemphasized. There needs to be a the fi nal exit. specifi c focus on the issue of indebtedness, especially in view of the rising costs That this should have happened is of inputs, such as fuel. High rates of unacceptable, even more so as various indebtedness have also been a major factor measures suggested over the past few years, in the suicides of an estimated over 10,000 if implemented, would perhaps have made farmers in India in the past few years. it possible to improve turtle conservation, while enabling the continuation of The approach to conservation adopted in This editorial sustainable fi shing operations and livelihoods Orissa is by no means an isolated example. comment appeared in based on them. Several of these suggestions Fishing communities living adjacent to SAMUDRA Report have emanated from organizations like the marine protected areas (MPAs) in several No. 43, March 2006

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 41 SAMUDRA Dossier

countries in Asia and Africa have similar experiences to recount, and their concerns must be addressed, as articulated in the Joint NGO Statement on Protected Areas presented to the 8th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP8) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Curitiba, Brazil on 23 March 2006 (see page 43).

Coastal fi shing communities can be powerful allies in the efforts to conserve, restore and protect coastal and marine biodiversity. And needless to say, coastal fi shing communities dependent on the resource base for their livelihoods, can also be the prime benefi ciaries of well- designed conservation and management programmes. To ensure that happens, is the challenge ahead. It is completely unacceptable and totally unnecessary that the cost of conservation should be paid in human lives.

Also online at:

http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/43/edit.pdf

42 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier Only four years left to 2010!

Joint NGO Statement

A joint NGO statement at the recent Convention on Biological Diversity meet called for the involvement of indigenous/local communities

s Parties to the CBD, you did moving towards meeting the target laid yourselves proud by framing a out in Activity 1.5.5 of the Programme Ahistoric Programme of Work on of Work. Protected Areas. Civil society across the 2 In particular, we would highlight the world saw this as a potentially powerful need for urgent action to safeguard tool to meet the global goals of halting relatively large intact forests from biodiversity loss on land by 2010, and at sea illegal and unsustainable logging and by 2012. extractive industry, and deep-sea We acknowledge the progress made in biodiversity from the impacts of high- implementing the Programme of Work. seas bottom-trawling and industrial Several countries, NGOs and indigenous/ fi shing. A representative network of local community organizations have protected areas of such ecosystems is achieved considerable success on many urgently needed. fronts. We also acknowledge the work done 3 Very few countries appear to be by the Expert Group on Protected Areas, moving towards the larger landscape just before COP8, to design a more specifi c and seascape level planning that Evaluation Matrix. is required under Activity 1.2.2, as However, we are concerned that, in protected area management remains an general, progress with implementation isolated, usually very weak, part of the of this Programme of Work appears to overall decision-making apparatus of be painfully slow. Our concern is both on government. substantive and procedural matters. 4 Issues of governance, equity, and participation, as laid out in Activities On substance, we fl ag the following key 2.1.2, 2.2.1, 2.2.2, and 2.2.3, remain issues: weakly developed in most countries. This Joint NGO 1. The world’s biodiversity continues to The paradigm shift that the Programme Statement on face threats from unsustainable land- of Work represented, in terms of Protected Areas was and water-use activities, including inside democratizing protected area design presented to the many protected areas. In particular, and management, is yet to fi nd a 8th meeting of the we are alarmed at the continuing place in the relevant legislation of Conference of the spread of commercial plantations and most countries. On the contrary, in Parties (COP8) to monocultures, unregulated commercial many countries, indigenous peoples the Convention on fi sheries, extractive industries, illegal and local communities continue to Biological Diversity and unsustainable logging and related face dispossession by protected areas. (CBD) in Curitiba, trade, uncontrolled tourism, and, in Local people still pay heavy costs, Brazil on 23 March general the still-unsustainable patterns while the tourism industry and global 2006. It appeared in of ‘development’ and consumption. society receives substantial benefi ts. SAMUDRA Report There is little sign of governments This trend is exacerbated by the No. 43, March 2006

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 43 SAMUDRA Dossier

widespread privatization of protected of Work On Marine and Coastal areas over which indigenous and Biological Diversity, under Decision local communities have customary or VII/5 (COP7, Kuala Lumpur, 2004), traditional rights. that stresses that this Programme of Work aims to make a direct 5. In particular, very few countries have contribution to poverty alleviation, moved to recognize indigenous and in accordance with the Millennium community conserved areas, though Development Goals); the Programme of Work explicitly requires this. • preparing, through participatory processes that fully and meaningfully Equally of concern are problems of process. involve indigenous/local communities In particular, we fl ag the following: and NGOs, their national reports on 1 Most countries do not seem to have progress of implementation of the thought it important enough to report PA PoW, especially with regard to back on their national-level progress, the 2006 activity targets; and sending with only 15 having responded to these reports to the Secretariat before the 2nd meeting of the AHWGPA; the Secretariat’s questionnaire and 50 having provided some information • fi nishing full, transparent and in their National Reports. We note participatory reviews on key that the lack of fi nancial and other measures needed to comply with the implementation support from donor Programme of Work, and initiating countries is also a factor in this. substantive actions on each of these measures; and 2. The failure to provide funding to hold the second meeting of the Ad Hoc • exchanging key lessons from successes Working Group on PAs (AHWGPA), and failures in achieving the various scheduled for late 2005, is indicative targets of the PA PoW, bilaterally and of the lack of interest shown in this through the CBD mechanisms. Programme of Work. The donor community too needs to 3. In general, funding commitments realize that a renewed focus on protected remain woefully inadequate. areas, using the paradigm of the CBD PA PoW, would help address not only Given the above concerns, we urge parties conservation but also livelihood, poverty, to the CBD to commit to: and sustainability issues. The PA PoW needs • rescheduling, well within 2006, the political commitment, skills and capacity, aborted 2nd meeting of the Ad Hoc but it also needs funds, which are currently Working Group on PAs; and making sorely lacking. Element 2 a major focus at this meeting; In turn, we in civil society commit to taking the actions we can, to help implement the • adopting an Evaluation Matrix that Programme of Work. requires very specifi c reporting on progress of implementation, including We thank you for your attention. in it the question of how protected areas are meeting the socioeconomic [Delivered by Ashish Kothari, Kalpavriksh, and equity needs of indigenous on behalf of the undersigned, alphabetically peoples and local communities (also in listed, NGOs, and several other NGOs, line with the Elaborated Programme gathered at COP8]

44 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier

• Association of Private Nature Reserves of Minas Gerais, Brazil • CARE International • Equitable Tourism Options (EQUATIONS), India • Fauna and Flora International • International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) • Global Forest Coalition • Global Justice Ecology Project, USA • Greenpeace International • International Institute of Environment and Development • Kalpavriksh, India The donor • Pastoralist Integrated Support community too needs Programme, Kenya to realize that a • Royal Society for the Protection renewed focus on of Birds, United Kingdom protected areas, using • Social Equity in Environmental the paradigm of the Decisions, United Kingdom CBD PA PoW, would help address not only • The Nature Conservancy conservation but also • Wildlife Conservation Society livelihood, poverty, • WWF and sustainability issues.

Also online at:

http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/43/art06.pdf

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 45 SAMUDRA Dossier Life studies

Sarada Lahangir

A seasonal ﬁ shing ban meant to conserve turtles in Orissa, India, has fatally affected ﬁ shing communities

n 27 September 1997, the India, the fi shing prohibitions and the Gahirmatha Marine Wildlife olive ridley issue have turned into a bone OSanctuary was set up in the of contention because the turtles’ breeding Indian State of Orissa to protect the olive habitats in the river mouths also happen to ridley species of sea turtles in their nesting be the richest fi shing grounds of the State. and breeding habitat, under Section 26 A The marine turtle congregations occur of the Indian Wild Life Protection Act in the peak fi shing season. Interactions (WLPA), 1972. The sanctuary of 1,440 sq between such congregations and bottom- km is the world’s largest nesting site of trawl and gillnet fi shing have been reported the endangered olive ridley turtles. It is from 1974. This is perhaps the most striking demarcated into a core area of 725.5 sq km example of such interactions in the world, and a buffer zone of 709.5 sq km. involving the protection, almost every year, of an estimated 150,000 adult olive ridley The Indian Coast Guard was appointed population and their breeding and nesting Wildlife Warden of the Gahirmatha sanct- grounds, on the one hand, and the livelihood uary in 1998, with the power to stop and interests of about 50,000 fi shermen and seize fi shing vessels, especially trawlers, fi shworkers entirely dependent on coastal and to hand them over to the Forestry fi sheries, on the other. Department for further action. (The WLPA is implemented by the Ministry Fishing is considered to be the greatest of Environment and Forests, at the threat facing the olive ridleys in Orissa. national level, and by the State Forestry The main cause of turtle death is believed Departments, at the State level.) All forms to be drowning in bottom trawls and of fi shing are prohibited in the core entanglement in certain types of gillnets, area–10 km from the high-tide line–of the which account for about 90 per cent of Gahirmatha marine sanctuary throughout mortality during the December-February the year. However, innocent passage fi shing months. through the core area is permitted for fi shing vessels with no mechanical means For the fi rst two to three years after the of propulsion. Non-trawl forms of fi shing, declaration of the sanctuary in 1997, both mechanized and non-mechanized, enforcement of the fi shing ban was not are permitted in the buffer area–10 km to very strict. As a result, according to forest 20 km from the high-tide line. Trawlers offi cials, the mortality of the turtles This report, by that are permitted to fi sh beyond 20 km, increased. According to the Wildlife Sarada Lahangir, however, are required to use turtle excluder Society of Orissa and Operation Kachhapa correspondent, ANI, (Operation Turtle), during the last 13 years, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, devices (TEDs). more than 129,000 turtles have been found India, appeared in For the coastal communities of Orissa, dead along the Orissa coast in the Bay of SAMUDRA Report which is amongst the poorest States of Bengal. With the sandy beaches turning No. 43, March 2006

46 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier into turtle graveyards, pressure soon began The fi shermen alleged that the Forest to mount from environmentalists and Department offi cials were preventing conservationists from around the world. them from fi shing even beyond the 10-km As a result, the Coast Guard and the Forest distance. “They arrested the fi shermen Department intensifi ed patrolling, and illegally when they were fi shing outside began strictly enforcing the conservation the prohibited area,” Tushar Kanta Sardar, law. secretary of the Kendrapara District Fishermen’s Association, said. Traumatic effect The net effect, however, has been traumatic The fi shermen of the area say they use for Orissa’s traditional fi shing community, small motorized boats, and pay their nets which has to battle poverty and starvation manually, and do not hurt turtles. The induced by the fi shing ban. large trawlers kill turtles, they allege. Turtle conservationists, however, have a different According to Narayan Haldar, the president view. They say that traditional fi shing with of the Orissa Traditional Fish Workers’ 10-14-hp motorized boats also causes turtle ...innocent passage Union (OTFWU), the fi shing ban has already mortality. through the core area broken the backs of the fi shing community, of the sanctuary According to Mangraj Panda of OTFWU, especially in the coastal areas of Kendrapara should be allowed since the fi shing ban limits all options for District, where suicide deaths have been only for “traditional reported (see case studies below). a decent living, the fi shermen should be provided an alternative source of income. fi shermen” on local According to Haldar, the fi shermen have The union had fi led a petition with the non-mechanized raised their voices in different ways. On 21 Central Empowered Committee (CEC) fi shing vessels. November 2005, around 2,000 fi shermen constituted by the Supreme Court of India. demonstrated in Bhubaneswar, demanding After a visit to Orissa between 10 and 14 that the sanctuary’s seaward boundary February 2004, the CEC directed the State should be redrawn up to 10 km from the government to demarcate the prohibited high-tide line, from the existing 20 km. zone where fi shing is banned. Similarly, the boundary of the core area of the sanctuary should be reduced to The 2004 CEC report recommended that 5 km, from the existing 10 km, and innocent innocent passage through the core area passage through the sanctuary should of the sanctuary should be allowed only be allowed for all their fi shing units. The for “traditional fi shermen” on local non- government should provide them larger mechanized fi shing vessels. There should boats and engines so they could go offshore be a committee at the grassroots level, for fi shing. A 30 per cent loan and a 70 per constituted by the fi shermen’s unions, turtle cent subsidy should be provided to purchase conservationists, the Forest Department, fi shing equipment, they demanded. the Fisheries Department and local representatives. Wildlife protection should In January 2006, about 3,000 fi shermen be done with the involvement of the blockaded a road in Kendrapara District to community of the area, the CEC proposed. protest the ban. Forest Department offi cials had seized three gillnetters and a trawler, Unfortunately, nothing has been done and arrested nine fi shermen on charges of yet. The Forest Department has neither illegally fi shing in the prohibited area. The demarcated the sea zone nor formed any irate fi shermen blocked the main road at grass-roots committee. As a result, the Jamboo village for three hours, demanding resentment and misery among the local the release of the arrested fi shermen. people have increased, said Narendra

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 47 SAMUDRA Dossier

Behera, the president of the Mahakalpada rights of traditional fi shworkers and the zilla parishad (village council). responsibility to protect olive ridleys. The demarcation of the marine protected area While local fi shermen complain, the Forest in Orissa was the fi rst step in implementing Department has different views. “The the directives, says Gopal. fi shermen are trying to make a plea in the name of demarcation. Till date, all those Now the immediate intervention that arrested, have been arrested within the should be made is to give passage to 9-10 km sea zone, which is the prohibited traditional fi shermen to venture into their area. Of course, the CEC has directed fi shing grounds. There should be proper for the demarcation, but it is not an easy demarcation in the sea, and the fi shermen task. It requires millions of rupees, which should be covered under special welfare the government has not yet been able to schemes. They should be provided with allocate,” said A. K. Jena, District Forest alternative sources of income, through Offi cer (DFO), Rajnagar. vocational training, says Ashish Senapati, the project director of Project Swarajya, an No proposal NGO in Kendrapara District. He added that there was no proposal from the Fisheries Department for innocent passage. The fi shermen in the Mahakalpada area Nor has the fi shermen’s community given are mostly post-Partition immigrants and a any memorandum to anybody regarding large number are Bengali refugees from the such passage. He also said that the Forest then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), who Department does not even know how many settled on land provided by the government. boats have been issued licences. There Most–80 per cent–of the coastal villagers seems to be a major communication gap or are Bengali-speaking people who eke out a lack of co-ordination between the Fisheries living by fi shing. Being immigrants, they are Department and the Forest Department. a political minority, and their voices remain The fi shing ban has a great impact on the unheard. They are just used as a vote bank, fi sh markets also. According to data from says Rajesh Behera, a freelance journalist. the Fisheries Department, there has been a decline in fi sh production in Kendrapara In last two years, the coastal villages of District during the last few years. Kharnasi and Ramnagar have seen at least seven persons committing suicide and seven Greenpeace, the international environ- more reporting severe mental distress, mental group, launched Sugaytri, a boat unable to feed their families and repay bank specially equipped to undertake exhaustive loans after they lost their traditional means patrolling to protect the sea turtle. The fi rst of livelihood due to the fi shing ban. event to mark the launch of the campaign Offi cial ignorance was the laying of buoys outside the periphery of the Gahirmatha sanctuary to demarcate Both Jyotiprakash Das, the District the non-fi shing zone. Greenpeace also Collector of Kendrapara, and Suresh solicited the support of the State Forest Mohanty, the Chief Wildlife Warden, Department for the demarcation of the claimed to be unaware of the deaths in remaining boundaries of Gahirmatha and the fi shing community, reportedly induced eventually, the no-fi shing zones of other by the poverty that resulted from the breeding sites, said Sanjeev Gopal, Ocean fi shing ban. But they did not hesitate to Campaigner, Greenpeace India. accept the fact that the livelihoods of the fi shermen have defi nitely been affected by The CEC is clear in its directives of the the ban and that they are yet to provide a need to strike a balance between the single alternative source of livelihood for

48 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier them. “Defi nitely, the turtle conservation the fi sh merchant for the dowry. Thus and fi shing ban has had a great impact Saha’s loan burden multiplied as time went on the fi shermen. From time to time, we by–moneylenders in the coastal villages of visit the places that have reported the Orissa double their interest rates for every deaths, but offi cially, I can’t say that the three months of default. deaths are due only to the fi shing ban. A proper investigation is needed,” said According to Arati, since 2001 the family B.C. Hembrum, a Fisheries Department had virtually lost their source of livelihood. offi cial at Kujang. Though they had one boat left, the fi shing ban prevented Saha from going fi shing. It is high time that the whole international Since then, he was a very depressed man. He community, the government machinery, constantly worried about how they would turtle conservationists, environmentalists marry off their two daughters. The elder and NGOs start thinking of the interests son had already dropped out of school to of the fi shermen and their families and help his father. But as they could not venture communities, and link these with the into the sea to fi sh, he too sits idle. “Just It is high time protection of the olive ridley turtles. two days before his death, he bought me that the whole a cotton saree, as I was managing with just international CASE STUDY 1: Gauranga Saha two sarees. He assured me that everything community, Gauranga Saha of Kharnasi village died would be fi ne. He also, at the same time, the government on 14 March 2004 at the age of 50, leaving said he regretted not being able to do a machinery, turtle behind his 44-year old wife, Arati, and fi ve lot of things for the family. Destiny did conservationists, not seem to support us...Who knew those children–two sons and three daughters, environmentalists and one of whom, the second, Tulasi, 20, got would be his last words?” Arati sobbed. married last year. The eldest son, Deepak, NGOs start thinking is 24 years, and the youngest, Debabrata, Saha ended his life by consuming poison of the interests of 15, studies in the ninth class. The other two when the entire family was asleep. When the fi shermen and daughters are Nilima, 22, and Bulu, 18. they did not fi nd him on the bed in the their families and morning, they searched all around and communities, and fi nally found his body in an isolated room, Saha committed suicide by consuming link these with the poison, confi rmed his widow. She said that which had been lying unused for a long protection of the olive after the fi shing ban, he was increasingly time. worried about the family’s source of ridley turtles. livelihood. The family owned four boats, The family plans to hand over their only outfi tted in 1997 with 10-14-hp motors. A boat to Bapina, the fi sh merchant, to repay boat costs around Rs250,000 (US$5,666) a debt of Rs70,000 (US$1,577). Their and typically, six persons work on each current fi nancial condition is miserable. boat. Deepak, the elder son, is unemployed and idles out the fi shing ban period; he can get Saha was the sarpanch (village council leader) work on other boats as a deckhand for only of Kharnasi during the last term. He had two months, earning Rs500 (US$11) per borrowed Rs150,000 (US$3,399) from the month. Arati sells puffed rice, for which she fi sh merchants, Nari Tarai and Bapina Saha earns Rs2 (US$0.05) a day. Her daughters of Paradeep, to repair his nets and gear. In roll beedis (cigarillos). “For 1,000 beedis, we 2001, the Forest Department seized two make Rs30 (US$0.7). To bind 1,000 beedis, of Saha’s boats. Another boat had already we take two days, so per day, we get only been destroyed in the 1999 supercyclone. In Rs15 (US$0.35). And in a month, we get 2002, Saha’s second daughter got married, work for only 12 to 14 days,” Nilima said. so he had to borrow Rs2,500 (US$56) from That means that, on average, both sisters

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earn about Rs225 (US$5) per month. Add go outside and get work as a wage labourer to this their mother’s income of about but in this area, no work was available.” Rs90 (US$2), and their total monthly income comes to about Rs315 (US$7), or Sikha now stays in a one-roomed thatched yearly, Rs4,780 (US$108). house with her three children and old mother-in-law. The eldest daughter, CASE STUDY 2: Bidyadhar Ram Mausumi, is 14 years old. The two sons, Bidyadhar Ram, 35, of Kharnasi village Bitu, 10, and Bibekananda, 7, are with committed suicide by hanging himself her mother. The family does not own any one night in an abandoned thatched land. They built their thatched house on building near his house in December 2005. government land. Their only source of His widow, Sikha, is 32 years old. “For income is the daughter, Mousimi, who now the last few years, he was depressed and works as a maidservant in a nearby village. frustrated,” she said. “One day two months “I have to walk at least 2 km to reach that ago, in December 2005, he came and told village. They pay me Rs2 (US$0.05) daily,” me that he could no longer maintain us Mousimi said. Both the sons have been because he had a loan burden of Rs10,000 withdrawn from their schools and will be (US$225), accumulated over time from sent to the town to work as child labour, borrowings from the trawler owners of according to their mother. Paradeep. CASE STUDY 3: Sukumar Sarkar Ram did not have any boat of his own; Sukumar Sarkar, 54, of Pitapata village he worked on trawlers as a helper, earning committed suicide by consuming pesticide Rs100 (US$2.25) daily. I decided to go to in March 2004. He had three children– my parent’s home for some time, thinking daughters, Sabita, 23, and Binita, 21, and a that I would return with my children when son, Bhabani, 20. His daughters had been the fi shing starts. The day after reaching married off before his death. His widow, my parent’s house with my children, I was Golapi, left the village with her son last year. informed that Ram had committed suicide Though we could not contact them, we by hanging himself. If I could have smelled could gather information of the family his intention, I would never have left him,” from the president of the panchayat (village Sikha lamented. Sikha said that though council), Narayan Haldar, and the villagers. they were not fi nancially very sound, they According to them, Sarkar owned two managed a hand-to-mouth existence. gillnet boats, fi tted with 10-15-hp motors. Their problems started over the last fi ve In 2002, the Forest Department seized years. When the fi shing ban got longer, both the boats. Though Sarkar managed to Ram could not earn anything, and so work on other boats for some time, after he started borrowing money from the the fi shing ban, all fi shermen, including the trawler owner whom he used to work for trawler owners, were in fi nancial diffi culty. earlier. Sarkar managed to marry off his daughters Asked whether they had had a fi ght before by borrowing some money. Meanwhile, she left for her parent’s house, Sikha said: he fell ill and could not go out in search “It soon came about that we couldn’t of work. The fi sh merchants from whom provide a square meal for our children That he had borrowed money would frequently irritated me and frustrated him. So we had badger the family for repayment, so one day, arguments and fi ghts sometimes, like any Sarkar’s son, Bhabani, migrated elsewhere family in a similar situation, I guess. My and his widow Golapi went to stay with her husband was rendered helpless. He tried to daughter-in-law.

50 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier

CASE STUDY 4: Rashyamaya Mandal per day. But since there are no jobs easily 50-year old Rashyamaya Mandal of Ram available in the village, he has to go far off Nagar village committed suicide on 10 in search of work, and gets to work for only April 2002. Mandal had six children–three 10 to 12 days in a month during the seven- daughters and three sons. The eldest month fi shing ban period. Occasionally, he daughter, Sabitri, is 26 years old; the other fi nds work on a trawler when the fi shing children are: Ganesh, 24; Laxmi, 22; Bijili, ban has been lifted. His monthly income 21; Sanjay, 15; and Pintu, 14. is about Rs600 (US$14). His mother sells dried cowdung cakes, but makes very little According to Mandal’s widow, Kalidasi, income from her work. The total monthly they had one motorized 20-ft gillnet boat, income of the family is Rs720 (US$16). The which they had already lost to the 1999 six members of the family have to survive supercyclone. Besides, they had one country on that amount. boat and two acres of land, on which they CASE STUDY 5: Sripad Jagdar sometimes grew paddy. “We were living hand-to-mouth because we had a large 48-year-old Sripad Jagdar of Ramnagar family, with six children. My elder son village died in November 2004, leaving abandoned his studies to go fi shing with behind four children: Ranjan, 24, Ranjit, 23, his father. When the ban was imposed, our Sapan, 16 and Sanjay, 12. His wife, Srimati, economic condition got worse. Meanwhile, said that Jagdar had one motorized 10-hp the marriage of our elder daughter, Sabitri, gillnet boat, which is still with the Forest was fi nalized. My husband took a loan Department. Though they did not have from the bank for her marriage. To repay any land of their own, Sripad could earn the loan, we mortgaged our two acres of enough for his family, hiring other boats for land to Ranjit Mandal of Ramnagar and fi shing. Before the ban was imposed, he was Mahant Babu of Kharnasi village. During earning up to Rs4000 (US$90) per month. the fi shing ban, we faced lots of problems After the ban, gradually the family income in meeting our daily needs. My husband’s shrunk and soon became insuffi cient for a frustration from the fi nancial crunch cost decent living. Meanwhile, Sripad contracted him his mental balance. He began to behave a tumour in his abdomen, and doctors abnormally and went out for days together. referred him to the city hospital. My children had to search for him and bring him back home. One day, all of us “At fi rst, we somehow managed to collect went to attend a social function and when Rs15,000 (US$338) by borrowing and got his we returned home late in the evening, he operation done in a hospital in the capital. was no more. He had committed suicide When he fell ill again, the doctor diagnosed by hanging himself,” Kalidasi burst out in it as a stone in his kidney, and advised us tears. to take him to Hyderabad for treatment, but we could not since we were left without After Mandal’s death, the family had to sell even a single paisa,” Srimati said. As a result, their country boat for Rs2,500 (US$56), he remained at home and ultimately died though its market value is almost Rs7,000 for want of proper treatment. (US$158). Their land was confi scated by Ranjit Mandal and Mahant Babu, as they “If fi shing had not been banned, and our could not repay their debt. Now they have fi shing activities had continued as earlier, neither land nor a source of livelihood. The we would not have lost our father. You elder boy, Ganesh, is now the sole earning are directly or indirectly forcing people to member of the family. Ganesh used to die. It’s happened to us,” laments Jagdar’s work as a casual labourer for Rs50 (US$1) eldest son, Ranjan. All the three brothers

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 51 SAMUDRA Dossier

now collect shrimp fry from the river, each CASE STUDY 8: Jodan Biswas earning about Rs7-10 (US$0.22) per day. Jodan Biswas, 46, of Ram Nagar, committed They have no cultivable land, and only a suicide by consuming poison. He leaves mud house to live in, and their mother does behind a son. The small family had been not even get a widow’s pension from the earning a living from fi shing. Biswas had government. one boat, which has since been taken over CASE STUDY 6: Jagdish Das by the fi sh merchant, to whom he owes Rs40,000 (US$903), which he had borrowed Jagdish Das, 55, committed suicide by for the treatment of his wife’s tuberculosis, consuming poison in September 2003. His which she never survived. His wife’s death wife, Kalpana, said that after the fi shing and the fi nancial crisis following the fi shing ban, both his 14-hp motorized boats got ban forced Biswas to commit suicide. His destroyed. Das has seven children: four sons only son has since left the village. and three daughters. The earnings from his two boats were not suffi cient for the large family. Besides, all the children were studying, and there were loans to be repaid.

Being very introvert by nature, Das never discussed his ﬁ nancial condition with anyone, not even with his wife. The couple had great hopes for their two sons who were doing undergraduate studies. Both hoped to get good jobs once they graduated. Meanwhile, Das developed a physical ailment, but the family had no money to take him to the hospital. Kalpana then decided to sell their only house to treat her husband. Though she broached the subject with him, he never responded. Two days later, he committed suicide.

Now the Das’ do not have a source of income. Though the two sons gained some sort of employment in a private school, they have not started getting salaries. Das’ sons were very reluctant to give an interview. They wished to regard the whole thing as a family affair. Also online at: CASE STUDY 7: Birat Haldar Birat Haldar of Kharnasi died in January http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/43/art11.pdf 2003 after consuming poison. He leaves behind his wife Deepali, and two sons. They now survive by working on trawlers and collecting shrimp fry from the creeks. Though we could not meet them, the villagers of Kharnasi conﬁ rmed Haldar’s death and his family’s plight.

52 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier An integrated approach

Alain Le Sann

The French experience shows that if ﬁ shermen are convinced of the potential beneﬁ ts of MPAs, they will take an active part in their implementation

n 31 March 2007, the Collectif Networks, where fi shing would be banned, Pêche et Développement, a and that could cover up to 40 per cent of OFrench non-governmental the world’s oceans, while claiming that it is organization (NGO) working on issues all meant to preserve aquatic resources and related to fi shers and fi sheries, held a thus the interests of artisanal fi shermen. workshop in Brest, France, on marine protected areas (MPAs) from the fi shermen’s In France, during the campaign for the perspective. The location was symbolic as recent Presidential elections, the coalition the new agency in charge of managing MPAs of environmental NGOs reaffi rmed the countrywide will be based in Brest. The objective of turning 40 per cent of the workshop was primarily aimed to highlight French exclusive economic zone (EEZ) the importance of the Iroise Marine Park into no-fi shing marine reserves. French (Parc naturel d’Iroise), in which fi shermen are fi shermen have long been familiar with signifi cant stakeholders. Participants were cantonnements (marine areas where certain invited to analyze the linkages between fi shing operations are banned), but with fi shermen and MPAs, and to outline how this 40 per cent target for strictly restricted these could become management tools for zones, it is clear that the focus is essentially fi sheries. They drew from two overseas case on conserving biodiversity as such, and not studies–Banc of Arguin National Park in on the sustainable use of fi shery resources. Mauritania (PNBA), and another in The challenge for fi shermen now is to Portugal–and two in France (Iroise Marine show that they are capable of carrying on Park in Britanny, and Cantonnement du with their activities while fully respecting Cap Roux in the Mediterranean). the ecosystem on which they depend.

The debate on MPAs has gathered Case studies momentum globally since the World From the Mauritanian and Portuguese case Summit for Sustainable Development in studies presented at the Brest workshop, it Johannesburg in 2002. With the spread of appears that confl icts may arise between MPAs, the tenets of fi sheries management the fi shermen and the marine reserve are undergoing great changes, and the need managers. The PNBA case was presented for the ecosystem approach to conserve by Yan Giron, a young fi sheries scientist. biodiversity assumes new importance. It Established in 1976, the PNBA is one of is necessary to examine how MPAs relate the oldest and largest MPAs in the world. It This article, by to ongoing fi shing activities, and how is inhabited by a population of Imragen, an Alain Le Sann of they could serve fi sheries-management ethnic group with strong cultural traditions, the Collectif Pêche objectives. Some environmental NGOs whose livelihoods depend on fi shing and et Développement, view them as a panacea. Greenpeace, for pastoralism. Their peculiar method of France, appeared in instance, is campaigning for a Global System catching mullets with the help of dolphins SAMUDRA Report of Marine and Coastal Protected Area is well known. No. 47, July 2007

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 53 SAMUDRA Dossier

The primary objective of those who conserve biodiversity. Close to 2,700 established the PNBA was to protect its rich persons are involved in subsistence and bird populations. The vast tidal mudfl ats artisanal fi shing activities in the 57-sq km are a unique resting and feeding place for area. Many of them are unemployed or many migratory species of birds. Later, retired persons with meagre pensions. foreign observers realized how plentiful Due to the economic crisis in the Setúbal fi sh resources were in the same area, which area, their number has increased. Some are fi shermen had been exploiting for a long illiterate, and their average age is 56. Illegal time. In the 1990s, some danger signals fi shing, including by diving, is a frequent began to appear, with the guitarfi sh stocks, occurrence. In the course of time, with for example, dwindling to near extinction. the aging of the population, such activities By the end of the decade, several measures are bound to recede. The park’s authorities were initiated to protect the park from have not really taken into account that social outside operators coming in with industrial problem, nor are they addressing the issue boats or motorized canoes, and also to of illegal activities by recreational fi shers. regulate the fi shing effort of the Imragen dwellers. A limit of 100 was placed on the The organized small-scale fi shermen number of traditional sailing craft, and, in are demanding that current rules and 2004, a ban was imposed on shark fi shing. regulations be effectively implemented before any restructuring of the park is Control measures apply essentially to done. Considering that the management fi shermen living outside the park, and they plan disregards their claims and interests, resent the situation, as the proscribed area they have now withdrawn from discussions extends to as much as a third of the entire for the marine reserve. They also say that Mauritanian coastline. Only subsistence major sources of industrial pollution are fi shing is offi cially permitted inside the park, still unchecked. They feel they are the only but, given the availability of the resource ones to suffer from the creation of the park. and the potential for profi ts, commercial The confl ict seems to arise from a lack of fi shing exists. The park’s promoters and consultation between the authorities and fi sheries-policy managers, acting in league the fi shermen, and from the absence of with local leaders, had not provided for appropriate action in the face of pressing such a development. The respective roles social problems. of the various stakeholders (government representatives in charge of the park, There are a number of small marine parks fi shermen and conservation managers) on the French part of the Mediterranean have not been properly defi ned. Though coast. In some of them, fi shermen are the PNBA is one of the best-managed closely associated with their management. MPAs in west Africa, there is room for In recent years, fi shermen have, on their improvement, which could lead to more own initiative, established new reserved equity in the sharing of advantages, better areas with help from dedicated biologists, integration of conservation objectives and for instance, the cantonnement of Cap Roux sustainable fi shing operations. on the Côte d’Azur promoted in 2004 by the local prud’homies (traditional fi shermen’s The case study of Portugal was presented organizations) in collaboration with at the workshop by Marc Savary, a scientists from the University of Nice. geographer. Portugal’s fi rst marine reserve, situated in the south of the country, near Preliminary observations show an Setúbal, is the continuation of a mainland improvement of the biomass inside the natural park, which was established to reserve, but it is too early to expect any

54 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier improvement outside the protected area. are extracted annually; 350 boats manned That may happen later, as indicated by the by 900 fi shermen are in operation. To positive results obtained elsewhere, for this, one can add 10,000 recreational craft, instance, in Corsica. The strategy adopted plus transiting French nuclear submarines. by fi shermen is to create a network of Clearly, this is a region crying out for small reserves along the coast that would integrated coastal management. hopefully increase the recruitment in the fi sh population. While some scientists The comités locaux des pêches (fi shers’ question the validity of such an approach organizations) were at fi rst hesitant to to improve fi sh availability, local fi shermen engage with the park process; then they appear satisfi ed. They are also able to keep realized that the project could become recreational fi shers at bay, to some extent. a signifi cant instrument to promote the interests of artisanal fi sheries, as long as the The most conclusive experience comes objectives of conservation and the tenets from the marine park of the Côte Bleue, of sustainable fi shing could be pursued near Marseille, established in 1983 and side by side. So they proposed to conduct, The organized covering 10,000 ha. Fishermen have been within the park, a pilot scheme on resource small-scale fi shermen closely associated with its management. The management and rehabilitation of depleted are demanding park includes two integral reserves (no-take lobster stocks. Some fi shermen remain that current rules areas), and 3,000 cu m of artifi cial reefs were suspicious, and a number of recreational and regulations put in place to provide shelter for the fi sh, fi shers are particularly hostile to more be effectively constraints and controls. The administrative and block access by trawlers. Fishermen are implemented before very happy with the functioning and impact process is also bedevilled by local political any restructuring of of the park, and they have given the green feuds. Just before the recent presidential light for its extension. Thanks to the park, elections, some politicians pressured the the park is done. they have been able to negotiate with the government to hold on to legal sanction for port authorities of Fos, a neighbouring the park, despite 15 years of discussion. industrial region, on ways and means to mitigate the negative impacts of maritime To clear the legal way for the project, the traffi c and discards of all sorts. Natural Parks Act had to be amended, because while natural parks aim essentially The Iroise Marine Park in Brittany is of a at conserving nature, marine parks (which larger scale: 300 km of coastline and 3,550 sq are established on State property) must cater km of ocean space. The project started in the to the twin objectives of habitat and species early 1990s in the minds of some biologists preservation and economic development. who, in 1988, had obtained, under the Man The Iroise Marine Park does not include and Biosphere (MAB) Programme of the integral reserves. It will have a management United Nations Educational, Scientifi c and plan and a management committee in Cultural Organization (UNESCO), funds for which fi shermen will play an active role, the creation of a biosphere reserve on the and will make proposals to be implemented islands of Ouessant and Molène. They later through the existing fi sheries management asked for an extension of the buffer zone, as bodies. Fisher leaders view the project the area adjoins the world’s busiest maritime as a real opportunity to promote coastal route and, consequently, is under threat of fi shing by bringing in innovative initiatives, pollution from tankers and freighters. It is and developing collaborations with the of great biological signifi cance, having the recreational sector and environmentalists. largest seaweed beds in Europe (300 known species), marine mammals (seals, dolphins) There is a lot at stake in this challenge. It and birds. About 40,000 tonnes of algae has to be demonstrated that, in order to

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 55 SAMUDRA Dossier

protect ecosystems, one can do without vast integral reserves. Indeed, one can protect and conserve the environment while continuing with sustainable ﬁ shing operations.

Thanks to integrated management measures, these two objectives may not be mutually opposed. The best way to invalidate the rationale of some environmental organizations for the creation of global marine reserves networks to cover up to 40 per cent of ocean space is to work towards the success of the Iroise Marine Park project.

In conclusion, French artisanal ﬁ shermen seem to be adequately involved in the MPA processes. This is not quite the case in other European countries. The approach on the Mediterranean coast differs widely from that on the Atlantic coast, because of particular aspects in the respective historical backgrounds and ecosystems.

The co-operation phase is necessarily lengthy. It takes a long time to agree on common objectives and strategies–15 years, in the case of the Iroise Marine Park. This has much to do with the complexity of the territory and the diversity of its activities. Fishermen are not the main opponents of marine parks. The recreational ﬁ shing sector is often more powerful and reluctant to accept MPAs.

It is imperative to address the issues of nature conservation and fi sheries management with an integrated approach. Establishing a reserve without applying simultaneously a management plan in the Also online at: adjoining areas will produce limited results. http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/47/art05.pdf Once fi shermen are convinced of the potential benefi ts of the project, they will take an active part in the implementation of the conservation and management measures.

56 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier Reserving a role for communities SAMUDRA Report Comment

Communities, if seen as rights holders, can be powerful allies in conservation and management of coastal and marine resources through protected areas

n 2004, Parties to the Convention Empowering indigenous and local fi shing on Biological Diversity (CBD) set communities to progressively share Ithemselves the goal of effectively the responsibility of managing coastal conserving at least 10 per cent of the world’s and fi sheries resources, in keeping with marine and coastal ecological regions by Programme Element 2 on governance, 2012. According to recent estimates, less participation, equity and benefi t sharing in than one per cent of the waters under CBD’s Programme of Work on Protected national jurisdiction are under protection. Areas (Annex to Decision VII/28), would Undoubtedly, this decision has implications undoubtedly meet the goals of both for small-scale fi shing coastal communities, conservation and poverty reduction. the primary traditional users of coastal and marine areas. For this, however, much work remains to be done in ensuring that provisions in existing Coastal fi shing communities, threatened as international legal instruments supporting they are by biodiversity loss and degradation the rights of indigenous and small-scale of coastal ecosystems, have been demanding fi shing communities with respect to effective action to protect and manage conservation initiatives, are refl ected in coastal and marine habitats and resources. national legislation, policy and practice. In In several parts of the world, they have particular, there is a need to recognize the been known to take their own initiatives traditional and customary rights of fi shing to protect and manage their resources, communities to resources, as well their given the close links between their rights to engage in responsible fi sheries, in livelihoods and the health of the resource keeping with the principle of sustainable base. use of biodiversity.

Clearly, communities can be powerful allies Communities traditionally dependent in efforts for conservation and management on the resource base must be seen of coastal and marine resources. Problems as rights holders in decision-making arise, however, due to conservation processes. This means that the choice of approaches with pre-determined agendas that appropriate management/conservation serve to alienate indigenous and local ﬁ shing tools, objectives and plans, governance communities. The current target orientation structures, provisions for community in some countries to expand areas under representation, and implementation marine protected areas (MPAs), while short- and monitoring, should be decided in This editorial circuiting participatory processes, is a case in consultation with local communities, and comment appeared in point. Not surprisingly, such approaches are the governance structure itself ought to SAMUDRA Report proving ineffective, from the perspective of represent the various social groups within No. 48, both conservation and livelihood. the community, including women. November 2007

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 57 SAMUDRA Dossier

As important is the need to adopt appropriate strategies and tools within a wider marine and coastal management framework. Establishing MPAs is pointless if, for example, pollution and uncontrolled development continue to jeopardize the health of coastal and marine ecosystems at the larger level. This was highlighted by participants, including representatives of ﬁ shing-community organizations, at a recent workshop on marine reserves in India (Workshop on “Fisheries and Marine Reserves in India,” held in New Delhi, India, 8-10 October 2007).

As CBD’s Working Group on Protected Areas meets in Rome, Italy from 13 to 17 February 2008, it would do well to take note of these issues. The future of both effective conservation and millions of livelihoods is at stake.

Also online at:

http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/48/edit01.pdf

58 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier Towards a new commons

Chandrika Sharma

A recent ICSF workshop drew on country case studies to provide a small-scale ﬁ shing-community perspective on marine protected areas

ith the conservation of marine The workshop was organized just prior to resources increasingly a global the Second meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Wpriority, the concept of marine Group on Protected Areas (WGPA2) of the protected areas (MPAs) is being widely Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), propagated. Most MPAs are located in Rome, from 11 to 15 February 2008. in marine and coastal areas of high biodiversity, which has direct relevance The study from South Africa drew on and concern to the livelihoods, culture fi ve case studies of MPAs in the country, and survival of small-scale and traditional that is, Langebaan Lagoon, Maputaland, fi shing communities. Numerous studies St Lucia, Tsitsikamma, and Mkambati. The have examined the ecological and biological research was undertaken by Jackie Sunde impacts of MPAs; however, few have of the Masifundise Development Trust, focused on the social implications of MPAs Cape Town, and Moeniba Isaac of the on communities who depend on fi sheries Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies resources for a livelihood. It is to address (PLAAS), University of Western Cape. this gap that the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) facilitated The study found that, in general, traditional, six studies (in Brazil, India, Mexico, South small-scale fi shing communities living in, or Africa, Tanzania and Thailand) to: adjacent to, MPAs bear the costs of marine conservation while enjoying few benefi ts. • provide an overview of the legal While South Africa has committed to framework for, and design and fulfi lling international and related national implementation of, MPAs; obligations to ensure that local communities • document and analyze the experiences and indigenous people participate in the and views of local communities, management of protected areas (PAs), and particularly fi shing communities, on share equitably in their benefi ts, MPAs lag various aspects of MPA design and behind their terrestrial counterparts in this implementation; and regard. • suggest ways in which livelihood concerns can be integrated into the Fisheries legislation MPA programme of work, identifying, The integration of MPA legislation with in particular, how local communities, fi sheries-management legislation in South especially fi shing communities, could Africa constrains interpretation of the engage as equal partners in the MPA broader social justice imperatives inherent process. This report, by in the CBD Programme of Work, and a Chandrika Sharma, On 8 and 9 February 2008, ICSF organized biological conservation-oriented fi sheries Executive Secretary, a two-day workshop on “Social Dimensions science dominates the agendas of these ICSF, appeared in of Marine Protected Areas”, with specifi c MPAs. Far from adopting a responsible, SAMUDRA Report relation to fi shing communities, to discuss ‘enabling’ approach to traditional, small- No. 49, March 2008 the fi ndings from the six studies undertaken. scale fi sheries, current management of

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 59 SAMUDRA Dossier

MPAs: Small-scale fi shing-community perspectives The workshop identifi ed the following issues PAs (in keeping with decision VII/24). and related proposals: Community initiatives need to be seen as conservation initiatives in their own right and Prioritizing process: Parties to the CBD accorded due legal recognition and support. have set themselves a target of bringing Recently introduced MPAs have often been at least 10 per cent of the world’s marine imposed on these systems, undermining ecoregions under protection by 2012. While them as well as the social institutions that conservation initiatives certainly need an sustain them. In contrast, in countries such impetus, we need to be aware that in the quest as in Brazil, Spain and France, community- for meeting quantitative targets, the nature initiated and community-driven processes and quality of community participation that have drawn on traditional knowledge in governance are being compromised, of local fi shing communities, have received curtailing the very effectiveness of this support from government, and are proving programme of work. In our experience, the effective. process of ensuring effective and meaningful community participation in management The following are specifi c proposals for and PA implementation is challenging, and WGPA2: needs, above all, time. However, it should be Participation in PA-related processes: The recognized that only genuine, participatory direct participation of fi shing community processes would ensure long-term and representatives in all CBD workshop and sustainable outcomes, balancing biodiversity meetings related to PAs should be facilitated. conservation with environmental and social In order to make this participation meaningful justice. and effective, preparatory processes prior to Human rights: Undemocratic and non- meetings need to be organized and supported, transparent processes in PA implementation, and translation of documents/interpretation particularly top-down, target-oriented MPA ensured. implementation, supported by governments, Governance and capacity building: To fi nancially powerful conservation NGOs increase awareness of the provisions of the and international fi nancial institutions, are PA Programme of Work (PA PoW), and displacing and undermining livelihoods to ensure its implementation, particularly of fi shing communities, compromising, of Programme Element 2, there is need to in many instances, the human rights of organize specifi c capacity-building workshops these communities. This is especially the on governance and social issues, with case where the focus is on no-take reserves participation of indigenous and local fi shing- rather than on conservation within a community representatives, governments, and sustainable-use framework. If coastal and natural and social scientists, at the national marine conservation initiatives are to be and regional level. Such processes should effective from a biodiversity, livelihood and ensure that management plans developed poverty alleviation perspective, the starting for MPA implementation, which at present point must be fi shing and other marine tend to be biological in focus, have a specifi c resource-dependent communities and their socioeconomic focus. organizations themselves. Reporting: Reporting by governments on PA Community conservation initiatives: In implementation should specifi cally include this context, we need to be aware that fi shing reporting progress achieved on implementing communities across the world have been Programme Element 2 of the PA PoW (in taking a variety of initiatives traditionally keeping with decision VIII/24, para 4) and and, more recently, to protect and manage on meeting MDG targets. The reporting their resources, within a sustainable-use format needs to be accordingly modifi ed to framework, including through establishing enable qualitative and meaningful reporting PAs. It is essential to adopt a dynamic and on these goals. National reports need to be fl exible approach to defi ning and recognizing ...contd. on next page

60 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier

...contd. from previous page gender-segregated baseline socioeconomic data prepared through a participatory process, is part of the reporting framework that goes to where communities in PAs are part of the develop this database. process of monitoring effectiveness of PA Toolkits: There is need to develop specifi c implementation. Civil society needs to be toolkits for evaluation and implementation of supported in conducting evaluation of PAs. MPAs, suited to the specifi c context of fi shing There is need for specifi c reporting on MPAs. communities and the marine environment, and This would also enable governments to review with a focus on socioeconomic components. governance frameworks in use for management Social and cultural criteria: There needs to of MPAs, given that, in several countries, be greater focus on social and cultural aspects terrestrial frameworks and institutions are of PA planning and implementation, balancing used for the management of MPAs, despite the current predominant focus on biological the unique nature of the coastal and marine aspects. Local, traditional and indigenous ecosystems as well as the social institutions that knowledge should be included in all stages of relate to these resources. the identifi cation, planning and implementation ...in several Socioeconomic data: While the initiative of conservation and management initiatives, countries, terrestrial to develop the World Database on Protected and in monitoring and evaluating effectiveness frameworks and Areas is commendable, it is imperative that of these initiatives. institutions are used for the management marine resources in MPAs contributes to knowledge with traditional knowledge and of MPAs, despite the the further exclusion of the sector, and management practices. unique nature of the undermines traditional livelihoods. coastal and marine For the India study, Ramya Rajagopalan, ecosystems as well as The Brazil study, by Antonio Carlos Diegues Consultant to ICSF, researched the Gulf of the social institutions of NUPAUB, the University of São Paulo, Mannar National Park (GOMNP) and that relate to these focused on three marine extractive reserves: Biosphere Reserve (GOMBR) in Tamil resources. Mandira, São Paulo; Corumbau, Bahia; and Nadu, and the Malvan (Marine) Wildlife Arraial do Cabo, Rio de Janeiro. The Sanctuary in Maharashtra. The study found National System of Protected Areas (SNUC) that in both cases, fi shing communities feel legislation that came into force in 2000 that consultation with them has been included new categories of PAs, such as inadequate. Signifi cant provisions in marine extractive reserves (MERs) and national legislation that support the rights reserves for sustainable development and occupational interests of communities (RSDs), established only where they are are yet to be implemented. Fishing demanded by fi shing communities. These communities demand better implementation categories represent a signifi cant departure of the provisions of the Marine Fishing from no-take national parks, which have Regulation Acts (MFRAs) of their respective caused many confl icts between artisanal States–to control trawling, in the case of fi shers and those governing the parks. The the GOM, and purse-seining, in the case of study suggests that while MERs create new Malvan. They feel that control of such opportunities for equitable, community-led destructive fi shing practices will, in itself, conservation, their effective implementation benefi t conservation. In general, the India faces signifi cant challenges, such as study indicates that while legislation, policy insuffi cient managerial capabilities within and practice now focus more on community government environmental institutions; participation and co-management of lack of strong, well-managed fi shworker natural resources, much remains to be done, and community organizations; paucity of especially to secure full and effective funds; and the integration of scientifi c participation of fi shing communities, and

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to improve governance, participation, The study from Mexico, though primarily a equity and benefi t sharing. secondary study, drew on two already- published detailed case studies, and The Thailand study, by Ravadee summarized the fi ndings from four other Prasertcharoensuk and Duangkamol case studies, as well as the experiences of Sirisook Weston of the Sustainable the authors themselves. It was undertaken Development Foundation, and Wichoksak by Julia Fraga of the Centre for Research Ronarongpairee of the Federation of and Advanced Studies of the National Southern Fisherfolk, drew on case studies Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV-IPN), from the Had Chao Mai Marine National Mexico, and Ana Jesus, a student who has Park, Trang Province, Andaman coast, and just completed her Master’s thesis on the the Ra Island–Prathong Island in the community-based management of an MPA Prathong Sub-district, Kuraburi District, in a small Mexican fi shing village. The study Phang Nga Province, also on the Andaman noted that despite government efforts, coast. The study suggests that while people’s participatory processes are still considerably participation is a concept looked on very immature, and indigenous and local favourably by the government, in practice, communities play limited roles in genuine participatory approaches are still decisionmaking and/or policymaking. The limited, and communities do not perceive study highlighted a case where a local benefi ts, particularly from the growth in group, initially motivated and willing to tourism in PAs. There are also constraints participate in PA management, ended up imposed by the existing legal framework, disillusioned with the shortcomings in the inadequate institutional capacity, lack of system. The authors also drew on cases co-ordination, and insuffi cient funding. where local resource users expressed lack of confi dence in the government’s In Tanzania, Rosemarie Mwaipopo of the management of natural resource within University of Dar es Salaam, and a member PAs; they viewed conservation and PAs as of the Western Indian Ocean Marine threats to their livelihoods, probably due to Science Association (WIOMSA), looked at their lack of involvement in natural resource social issues in the Mafi a Island Marine management, as well as the absence of Park (MIMP). Through an analysis of the alternative livelihood options. socioeconomic and cultural contexts of the The workshop also benefi ted greatly from Mafi a people, the study explains how the experiences of fi shing communities in people’s rights regarding ownership, access MPA areas in France, Indonesia and Spain, and their capacity to engage in, and benefi t as well as the perspectives provided by the from, the MPA become contested in representative of the World Forum of circumstances where the pressure to Fisher Peoples (WFFP). Alain Le Sann of conserve resources is also crucial. Pêche et Développement, France, described Management interventions, albeit how fi shermen have become ardent meaningfully designed, fall short of taking supporters of the Iroise Marine Park, which on board the contexts within which people covers 3,500 sq km off the western tip of live their lives, their diverse and changing Britanny. They see the park as a tool to relationships with one another and with protect the marine environment, including resources, how they articulate such from land-based threats, and have sought management interventions in relation to and achieved proper representation in the their rights, and their roles in resource management process. Antonio Garcia Allut management. described a similar fi shermen-led process

62 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier in Spain’s Galicia, a region where fi sheries participation, in general, participation tends are of great importance. to be instrumental–where communities are expected to participate in implementation, Riza Damanik of WALHI, the Indonesian and are not part of the process of designing Forum for the Environment, presented a and implementing management initiatives. recent study on fi ve MPA experiences in The studies also document clear costs Sulawesi and Komodo-NTT, namely, for communities–in terms of livelihood Wakatobi Archipelago MNP, Togian options lost, expulsion from traditional Archipelago MNP, Bunaken MNP, Komodo fi shing grounds and living spaces, and MNP and Taka Bonerate MNP. The WALHI violation of human/community rights, study found that conservation initiatives with few perceived real benefi ts. Alternative tended to be “coercive”, with little livelihood options that have been put in opportunity for communities to express place are perceived to have provided limited their consent or participation. Traditional, support to affected communities, and, in local knowledge has rarely been taken into several cases, as in Tanzania, South Africa It was noted that account. In addition, the process of setting and Thailand, communities do not perceive up marine national parks tends to be benefi ts from tourism initiatives associated while community-led followed by industrial investment activities with the PAs. There tends to be a resistance processes require for fi sheries and/or tourism, which provide to MPAs among local communities, a time, as community few local benefi ts. mistrust of government and NGOs that lead institutions need to such processes, and violations of rules and be developed and The workshop presentations revealed that regulations, undermining the effectiveness the most positive examples of livelihood- strengthened, they are of the MPA itself. sensitive conservation were community- more effective in the driven initiatives, as in the cases presented The workshop arrived at a set of longer term. from France (Iroise Marine Park), Spain recommendations for WGPA2 (see box on (Galicia) and Brazil (MERs). In these cases page 60). The fi ndings of the case studies communities are using PAs as a tool to were also presented at a side event organized protect their livelihoods, as, for example, by ICSF during WGPA2. Summaries of the against shrimp farms, tourism, sport fi shing case studies are available on ICSF’s website and oil pollution. It was noted that while (mpa.icsf.net) and the studies are soon to community-led processes require time, as be brought out as separate publications. community institutions need to be developed and strengthened, they are more effective in the longer term. These initiatives are creating a “new commons” where coastal communities have the responsibility for management, even though they continue to face several challenges. Also online at: On the other hand, it was clear from the case studies from India, Indonesia, Mexico, http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/49/art04.pdf South Africa, Tanzania and Thailand, that communities do not consider themselves equal partners in the MPA process.

Community participation While, in all cases, there have been recent efforts to enhance community

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 63 SAMUDRA Dossier Reversing from a dead end

Alain Le Sann

The Iroise Marine Park in Brittany, France, could serve as a model for ﬁ shermen who wish to move towards sustainable ﬁ sheries

n 2 October 2007, the Journal that attract large crowds of tourists: Pointe offi ciel published the decree du Raz, Cap de la Chèvre, Ile d’Ouessant, Oestablishing the Iroise Marine Ile de Sein…On the mainland, Douarnenez Park (Parc naturel marin d’Iroise), which covers and Camaret were, until the end of the 19th an area of 3,500 sq km, at the western tip century, among the main fi shing harbours of Britanny in France. The project, which in the country. In those days, there were was fi rst mooted in 1989, took more 5,000 fi shermen in Douarnenez, making a than 17 years to materialize. Surprisingly, living by targeting the rich sardine stocks while in Europe and elsewhere in the of the bay. The Baie de Douarnenez is still world, fi shermen are generally cautious or an important spawning habitat for bass and outright hostile towards such initiatives, bream. Camaret used to harbour the most in this particular case, the professional important lobster fl eet in Europe. Things organizations of fi shermen soon showed have taken a downturn, and fi shermen are a supportive attitude. There were intense now few in these localities. debates within the comités locaux, but the leaders were able to convince the majority The Iroise Sea has suffered several large- of fi shermen that the project could have scale oil spills. In the late 1970s, a nuclear favourable impacts on the fi sheries. The plant was to be built in Plogoff, near idea of creating a park was fi rst promoted the Point du Raz. This led to prolonged by a number of scientists. Way back in demonstrations by local folks and anti- the 1950s, several natural sanctuaries were nuclear activists, in general. Elements of established on deserted islands and on the French nuclear strategic force are based the coast. Later, a biosphere reserve was in the Rade de Brest. created and included in Man and Biosphere (MAB) Programme of the United Nations Painstaking rehabilitation Educational, Scientifi c and Cultural There are threats of pollution from Organization (UNESCO). various sources : industrial activities, This remarkable environment is endowed urban effl uents, intensive agriculture… with a rich marine and terrestrial biodiversity. For many years now, fi shermen have been One can fi nd here major seabird reserves, painstakingly trying to rehabilitate a scallop This article, as scientists focused on the conservation stock in the roadstead. There are about by Alain Le Sann of seabirds in the beginning. The area also 900 professional fi shermen (including of the NGO, Pêche has colonies of marine mammals as well part-timers) in the Iroise Sea. Annual et Développement, as the largest seaweed beds in Europe, fi sh production is about 12,000 tonnes, Brittany, France, and which have been exploited for the past 150 and 40,000 tonnes of seaweeds are also a Member of ICSF, years to provide ingredients for the food extracted. There are only 350 fi shing units, appeared in and chemical industries. The area offers, but 10,000 recreational boats and 26,000 SAMUDRA Report on a grand scale, natural sceneries (sun- sailors, who, therefore, wield signifi cant No. 49, March 2008 drenched or rain- and wind-swept, in turn) infl uence in the economic sphere.

64 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities SAMUDRA Dossier

After the creation of the natural reserves few reservations: we are against planning in the 1950s, the scientists who were part beforehand, no-take zones; and we insist of SEPNB/Bretagne Vivante, an infl uencial on proper representation of fi shermen, non-governmental organization (NGO), with full respect for our right to participate carried the action further. The Parc naturel in fi sheries management in accordance with régional d’Armorique (including the main current legislation”, they said. Fishermen islands of the Iroise Sea) was established in are keen to participate in the “sustainable 1969. Breton scientists played an important management of an exceptionally rich role in defi ning the framework, rules and environment/heritage”. agendas of that type of institutions. Fishermen realize that the coastal area is The aim was to couple protection of increasingly threatened by pollution from the environment with development of various sources, that the inshore zone is ecofriendly economic activities, and to base getting more and more crowded, and that their economic developement on the wealth fi shing enterprises are destabilized because of and quality of natural spaces. Faced with high competition for the resource. the repeated catastrophes of large-scale oil spills, politicians, fi shermen and the Appropriate tool population in general realized that the marine “We are convinced that, in order to improve environment needed protection. These the management of our marine territory, adverse circumstances favoured a degree there is need for an appropriate tool that is of concertation, but the governement was acceptable to all stakeholders. In our view, determined to retain full control of the sea, the proposed marine park could develop all the more so as this area includes major into a pilot scheme to ensure a sustainable components of national defence. In 1989, joint management of the coastal area, taking when the government picked up from into account the interests of all users,” they scientists the idea of creating a national say. marine park, many stakeholdders remained Fishermen have called on local council cautious, in particular fi shermen who feared the imposition of no-take areas. leaders to support the project. With this in mind, they became the most ardent In the early 1990s, the fi sheries in Britanny supporters of the park. To move things were in deep crisis. In 1993 and 1994, there forward, legislation on natural parks–which were violent demonstrations. In those focused essentially on terrestrial areas and hectic days, the fi shermen viewed the park conservation of spaces and species –had to project as a credible tool for mitigating the be amended. The Act creating marine parks decline of their fi sheries and leading to a as such is based on an integrated approach better future. Before participating for good that cares for the twin objectives of in the project, they, however, put forward conservation and susta-inable development some conditions. In November 2000, the of human activities. This new legal regional fi sheries committee and the local framework guarantees that power remains committees affected by the project (Nord- in the hands of local actors (elected leaders, Finistère, Audierne, Douarnenez, Le professional organizations and associations). Guilvinec) declared that they were in favour While fi nancing the structure, the State will, of the marine park. “Since September 2000, however, have a minority representation our Regional Committee has favourably within the management committee. and responsibly responded to the idea of creating a marine park, which could be an Through their involvment in the process, important tool for shaping the development fi shermen were able to shape the project of the area. At the same time, we express a and turn it into a potentially effective

Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities 65 SAMUDRA Dossier

instrument for maintaining and even Fishing is only one of the many and developing ecofriendly fi sheries. The varied activities included in the integrated park will also facilitate co-operation with management plan for the park. From an other stakeholders and a better control, at economic point of view, it is well behind source, of the various types of pollution tourism and recreational boating, for that threaten the quality of inshore waters. instance. But it is the fi rst sector to suffer By fi ghting to retain their place and rights the impacts of land-based pollution (from within the park, the fi shermen, though few agriculture, industry, tourism, urban in number, were able to assert themselves development), and the one particularly as major actors in the management of the sensitive to the quality of the marine coastal area. This may explain, in part, the ecosystem. In the past, lobster and sardine agressiveness and resistance of recreational stocks supported brisk economic activities fi shers, who fear the introduction of in Iroise, but have now dwindled due more constraining rules. These users were to overexploitation. Within the park’s adamantly opposed to the project, and were framework, fi shermen are determined to able to infl uence a number of mayors who rehabilitate these resources and to be at the wavered in their attitude to the project. heart of the conservation and rehabilitation process of the inshore ecosystem. In the Finally, after many mishaps, thanks to beginning, the park was the brainchild of the political will at the top level, and the a few scientists and political leaders. The determination of the fi shermen and fi shermen have now converted it into a other activists, the Iroise Marine Park new tool for moving towards sustainable came into being. Even before its offi cial fi sheries. Without their assent, the project establishment, in order to demonstrate could not have been carried forward; the interest and objectives of the new with their participation, the integrated management tool, the fi shermen asked management approach attains its full for the implementation of the following meaning. four projects: (1) A study of the impact of seaweed extraction was conducted. (2) On “The professional organizations of one island, support was given to an abalone fi shermen and seaweed gatherers diving project, to prove that rehabilitation (goëmoniers) were instrumental in getting of insular activities is also a priority. the project out of a dead end, supporting (3) A rehabilitation project was undertaken it against all odds in critical situations”, on the fi shery for lobster, a resource that Van Tilbeurgh Véronique writes in La mer used to be in abundance in the area. (4) An d’Iroise, négociations sur le principe de protection. action plan is being implemented, in concert They are the most vocal in asking for a with farmers, to reduce the occurrence of mitigation of the negative impacts of green seaweed bloom. certain land-based and coastal activities. In so doing, they put forward the notion These project agendas will form the outline of pays maritime, where terrestrial operators for the future master plan for the marine have to discipline themselves to preserve park and its specifi c targets. There is need the marine environment. The Iroise to control certain practices, and to limit Marine Park may serve as a model for other confl icts between types of boats/fi shing initiatives of the same type. techniques (métiers). These ideas are not new, but the park can provide fi nancing and offer a forum for consultation and scientifi c Also online at: advice. It is also possible to envisage a label for products originating in the park. http://www.icsf.net/SU/Sam/EN/49/art08.pdf

66 Reserved Parking: Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities Reserved Parking Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities: A collection of articles from SAMUDRA Report

SAMUDRA Dossier

Published by International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) 27 College Road, Chennai 600 006, India Tel: +91 44 2827 5303 Fax: +91 44 2825 4457 Email: [email protected] www.icsf.net

March 2008

Edited by KG Kumar

Cover Illustration by Sandesh ([email protected])

Printed at Nagaraj and Company Pvt Ltd, Chennai 600 096, India

ISBN 978 81 904590 8 2

The opinions and positions expressed in this publication are those of the authors concerned and do not necessarily represent the ofﬁ cial views of ICSF. Reserved Parking Marine Reserves and Small-scale Fishing Communities: A collection of articles from SAMUDRA Report

As the earth’s resources continue to face increasing pressure from a variety of human and natural causes, protection of the environment and biodiversity is a matter of contemporary concern, The conservation of coastal and marine resources, in particular, has become a priority for countries around the world. In this context, marine protected areas (MPAs) are being widely promoted as one of the most effective tools for the conservation of coastal and marine resources. Most MPAs are located in coastal areas of great biodiversity, and hence their development has direct impacts on the lives and livelihoods of coastal communities, especially small-scale and traditional fi shing communities. Typically, they are the ones who have to bear the costs of conservation practices–lost livelihood options, expulsion from traditional fi shing grounds and living spaces, and violation of human/community rights, to name a few. The articles in this dossier, drawn chronologically from the pages of SAMUDRA Report, the triannual publication of ICSF, draw attention to these issues. They show that conservation and livelihoods are closely intertwined, and that top-down, non-participatory models of conservation can be counterproductive. Despite being poor and powerless, fi shing and coastal communities can be powerful allies in conservation efforts, given their longstanding dependence on natural resources and their traditional ecological knowledge systems. As the examples in this dossier reveal, it is possible for fi shing communities to protect and conserve the environment, while continuing with sustainable fi shing operations. Clearly, only an integrated approach to fi sheries management and conservation will prove successful. This dossier will be useful for policymakers, social scientists, non-governmental organizations and others interested in fi sheries, conservation, communities and livelihoods.

ICSF is an international NGO working on issues that concern ﬁ shworkers the world over. It is in status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN and is on ILO’s Special List of Non-Governmental International Organizations. It also has Liaison Status with FAO. As a global network of community organizers, teachers, technicians, researchers and scientists, ICSF’s activities encompass monitoring and research, exchange and training, campaigns and action, as well as communications. ISBN 978 81 904590 8 2